American writer Fatimah Asghar has been named the winner of the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.

Asghar was one of five authors shortlisted for the award, which celebrates the work of women and nonbinary writers in Canada and the United States. Asghar won for their debut novel, When We Were Sisters.

The award comes with a $150,000 (U.S.) prize and a residency at the Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland and Labrador. The four finalists will each receive $12,500.

Asghar’s novel follows three orphaned Muslim American siblings as they come of age. The jury for the prize, comprised of Anita Rau Badami, Merilyn Simonds, Monique Truong, katherena vermette, and Crystal Wilkinson, said the book “absolutely dazzles.”

“Asghar’s novel is a tour de force, at once stirring and beautiful, breathtaking in its lyricism, and head-turning in its experimentations,” the jury said in a press release.

Speaking with Q&Q last month, Asghar said it was important for them to tell a story of orphans that differs from the typical narrative often found in literature in which a character with a traumatic past overcomes hardship.

“I’m South Asian, I’m nonbinary, and my parents died when I was very young,” Asghar said. “It was really important [to me] to think about what it really means to re-conceive the orphan narrative in a way that feels more real and grapples with the idea of grief, and also what it means to situate that in a South Asian and a Muslim context.”

Asghar was named the winner at an event at Parnassus Books, the bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee, owned and operated by novelist Ann Patchett.