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Jasmine Sealy wins the 2023 Amazon Canada First Novel Award

 

Vancouver-based Barbadian-Canadian writer Jasmine Sealy has been named the winner of the 2023 Amazon Canada First Novel Award for The Island of Forgetting (HarperAvenue). The prize, worth $60,000, was announced at a live ceremony in Toronto on May 31.

Loosely inspired by Greek mythology, The Island of Forgetting is a saga that spans four generations of one family who run a beachfront hotel in Barbados.

The novel was the 2020 winner of the UBC/HarperCollins Best New Fiction Prize and was also shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

Sealy was one of six finalists for the award – co-presented by Amazon Canada and The Walrus – which is awarded annually to the author of a debut novel. Each finalist received $6,000.

The winner and shortlisted books were selected by a jury comprised of authors Sharon Bala, Kim Fu, Heather O’Neill, and Zalika Reid-Benta.

Danica Popovic was named the winner of the sixth Youth Short Story Category. She received a $5,000 prize for her winning short story, “Local Shopper,” which will be published on thewalrus.ca later this year. Each shortlisted youth author received a $500 cash prize.

By: Q&Q Staff

May 31st, 2023

9:05 pm

Category: Awards, Industry News

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