Novels by Randy Boyagoda and Aimee Wall among works shortlisted for 2022 ReLit Awards
CBC Books | | Posted: May 16, 2022 1:20 PM | Last Updated: May 16, 2022
The ReLit Awards honour the best Canadian books published by independent presses
Novels by Randy Boyagoda and Aimee Wall are among the 15 books on the shortlist for the 2022 ReLit Awards.
The ReLit Awards honour the best Canadian books published by independent presses.
Similar to last year's announcements, the 2022 prizes are celebrating its poetry, short fiction and novel awards in the month of May. The prize is known for releasing long shortlists.
The prize was first founded in 2000 by Newfoundland filmmaker and author Kenneth J. Harvey. The ReLit Awards are now being managed by Harvey's daughter, Katherine Alexandra Harvey.
Winners receive the ReLit Ring, which is comprised of four moveable dials that each have the alphabet engraved on them. The ring was designed by Newfoundland jewellery designer Christopher Kearney.
Canadian author Randy Boyagoda is on the shortlist for Dante's Indiana, a dark and satirical novel about a middle-aged English professor named Prin who has lost his way. Semi-estranged from his wife and kids, he's desperate for money and purpose.
He moves to a small town in Indiana to work for an evangelical millionaire who's building a theme park inspired by Dante's Inferno. Dante's Indiana is the second book in Randy Boyagoda's planned trilogy, following the 2018 novel Original Prin.
Randy Boyagoda is the Ontario author of six books, including Governor of the Northern Province, Beggar's Feast and Original Prin. He has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Dublin Literary Award. Boyagoda is a columnist on CBC Radio's The Next Chapter and an English professor at the University of Toronto.
Aimee Wall's We, Jane is among the shortlisted titles. We, Jane is a novel about intergenerational female friendships and the power of care work for women by women. A present-day story about a character who travels to Newfoundland to continue the work of an underground abortion movement from 1960s Chicago, Wall explores the precarity of rural life, reproductive justice and finding home.
The novel was also longlisted for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Aimee Wall is a writer and translator from Newfoundland, currently living in Montreal. Her translations include Vickie Gendreau's novels Testament and Drama Queens and Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard's Sports and Pastimes. We, Jane is her first novel.
Each week, the long shortlists for a particular genre will be announced on Monday, and the winners for that year will be announced on Friday.
The first week of May will be poetry, the second week will feature short fiction and the third week will feature the novel category.
The novel nominees were announced on Monday, May 16 with the winner announcement happening on Friday, May 20.
Here are the novels long-shortlisted for the 2022 ReLit Awards:
Category: Short Fiction
- The Sound of Fire by Renée Belliveau
- The Fifth: A Love(s) Story by MP Boisvert
- Dante's Indiana by Randy Boyagoda
- Suture by Nic Brewer
- Instructor by Beth Follett
- Saltus by Tara Gereaux
- I, Gloria Grahame by Sky Gilbert
- Avenue of Champions by Conor Kerr
- Monster Child by Rahela Nayebzadah
- Saturday Morning by John Passfield
- The Troupers by Richard Scarsbrook
- We, Jane by Aimee Wall
- The Crash Palace by Andrew Wedderburn