Amazon.ca: First Novel Award

Past Winners

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About the Head Judge

Stuart Woods

Stuart Woods is the editor of Quill & Quire, Canada's magazine about the book trade. As the head judge, he selected the five novels shortlisted for the 2012 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.

About the Jury

A jury of three judges will select this year's winner from the five finalist novels.

John Degen

John Degen is the Executive Director at The Writers' Union of Canada and the author of the novel, The Uninvited Guest, published by Nightwood Editions, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award.

Meaghan Strimas

Meaghan Strimas is the academic coordinator for creative writing at the University of Guelph. She is the author of the poetry collections A Good Time Had by All and Junkman’s Daughter.

Alexi Zentner

Alexi Zentner’s first novel, Touch, was nominated for the 2011 Amazon.ca First Novel Award. He lives in Ithaca, New York.

Competition Rules and Submission Form

The official competition rules and submission form for the 2012 Amazon.ca First Novel Award can be found below:

The Amazon.ca First Novel Award

Amazon.ca is proud to present the First Novel Award, which recognizes the outstanding achievement of a Canadian first-time novelist. Since 1976, the First Novel Award has launched the careers of some of Canada's most beloved novelists, including Michael Ondaatje, Joan Barfoot, Joy Kogawa, W.P. Kinsella, Nino Ricci, Rohinton Mistry, Anne Michaels, André Alexis, Michael Redhill, Mary Lawson, Colin McAdam, Joseph Boyden, Joan Thomas, and David Bezmozgis.

The 2012 Amazon.ca First Novel Award Winner: Anakana Schofield for Malarky

Amazon.ca congratulates Anakana Schofield, winner of the 37th annual Amazon.ca First Novel Award for Malarky. “Malarky is a bold first novel from an author whose prose hums with electric wit and linguistic daring,” said Stuart Woods, head judge and editor of Quill & Quire magazine. “The novel traverses darkly comic territory with intelligence and poise, relating the story of an unnamed narrator whose resilience in the face of life’s disappointments will stay with readers long after the verbal pyrotechnics have dissipated. Anakana Schofield is a true original, and her novel is a delight.”

›Read more about Malarky

2012 First Novel Award Finalists

Y by Marjorie Celona		The Rest Is Silence by Scott Fotheringham
Y. That perfect letter. The wishbone, fork in the road, empty wine glass. The question we ask over and over. Why? My life begins at the Y. So begins the story of Shannon, a newborn baby dumped at the doors of the YMCA, swaddled in a dirty grey sweatshirt with nothing but a Swiss Army knife. She is found moments later by a man who catches a mere glimpse of her troubled mother as she disappears from view. All three lives are forever changed by the single decision...		In the backwoods of Nova Scotia, a man has decided to simplify his life and withdraw from the world. He builds a cabin, plants a garden, makes a few new friends. He begins to recount a story, a tale of youthful passions, of idealism and rebellion, of love and of science. As news reports trickle in of a brewing environmental catastrophe on a global scale, the unsettling nature of his confession becomes clear...
• Read more about Y		• Read more about The Rest Is Silence

People Park by Pasha Malla		Malarky by Anakana Schofield
It's the Silver Jubilee of People Park, an urban experiment conceived by a radical mayor. To celebrate, the city has engaged the illustrationist Raven, who promises to deliver the most astonishing spectacle its residents have ever seen. As the entire island comes together for the event, we meet an unforgettable cross-section of its inhabitants. Soon, however, what has promised to be a triumph of civic harmony begins to reveal its shadow side...		Our Woman will not be sunk by what life’s about to serve her. She's caught her son doing unmentionable things out by the barn. She's been accosted by Red the Twit, who claims to have done things with Our Woman’s husband that could frankly have gone without mentioning. And now her son’s gone and joined the army, and Our Woman has found a young fella to do unmentionable things with herself, just so she might understand it all...
• Read more about People Park		• Read more about Malarky

Ru by Kim Thúy
Ru. In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow--of tears, blood, money. Kim Thúy's Ru is literature at its most crystalline: the flow of a life on the tides of unrest and on to more peaceful waters. In vignettes of exquisite clarity, sharp observation and sly wit, we are carried along on an unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded and muddy Malaysian refugee camp, and onward to a new life in Quebec...
• Read more about Ru