The longlist has been announced for Canada Reads, the annual CanLit face-off organized by the CBC. The 15-title longlist will be winnowed down to a shortlist on Jan. 14. The panelists for this year’s competition will also be announced at that time.

Celebrating its 20^th anniversary, Canada Reads features five notable Canadians campaigning for a Canadian-authored book they believe all Canadians should read. Panelists vote to eliminate the books one by one, with the final book being declared the winner. Last year’s Canada Reads winner was Samra Habib’s We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir, defended by actor Amanda Brugel.

The debates will be broadcast March 8 through 11 on the CBC, CBC Radio 1, CBC.ca/books, and the streaming services CBC Gem and Listen.

• Yiddish for Pirates, Gary Barwin (Vintage Canada)
• All Together Now, Alan Doyle (Doubleday Canada)
• Butter Honey Pig Bread, Francesca Ekwuyasi (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Autopsy of a Boring Wife, Marie-Renée Lavoie, translated by Arielle Aaronson (House of Anansi Press)
• Two Trees Make a Forest, Jessica J. Lee (Hamish Hamilton)
• Dirty Birds, Morgan Murray (Breakwater Books)
• The Lonely Hearts Hotel, Heather O’Neill (HarperCollins)
• The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk (Erewhon Books)
• Tatouine, Jean-Christophe Réhel, translated by Katherine Hastings and Peter McCambridge (QC Fiction)
• Thunder Through My Veins, Gregory Scofield (Anchor Canada)
• Wendy, Master of Art, Walter Scott (Drawn & Quarterly)
• You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked., Sheung-King (Book*Hug Press)
• Tilly and the Crazy Eights, Monique Gray Smith (Second Story Press)
• Hench, Natalie Zina Walschots (HarperCollins Canada)
• Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead (Arsenal Pulp Press)