Canadian authors Kim Fu and Brandon Reid shortlisted for 2024 William Saroyan International Prize
CBC Books | Posted: May 13, 2024 7:17 PM | Last Updated: May 13
The $6,835 prize recognizes emerging writers in fiction and nonfiction categories
Canadian authors Kim Fu and Brandon Reid have made the shortlist for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing.
Awarded biennially by the Stanford University Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, the $5,000 USD ($6,841.32 Cdn) prize encourages new or emerging writers of fiction and nonfiction.
Both Fu and Reid are recognized in the fiction category for their books Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century and Beautiful Beautiful respectively.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century is a collection of short stories featuring characters dealing with common issues of grief, regret and unhealthy relationships. The stories weaves elements of magic, sci-fi and horror to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange.
Fu is a Washington-based, Canadian-born fiction writer and poet. She has published two more works of fiction, For Today I Am a Boy and The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore, and a book of poetry called How Festive the Ambulance.
LISTEN | Kim Fu discusses Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century on The Next Chapter:
Reid's Beautiful Beautiful is a debut coming-of-age novel that tells the story of 12-year-old Derik Mormin who's travelling to with his father to Bella Bella, B.C. for his grandfather's funeral. The book explores the beauty of rural and urban landscapes, his relationship with masculinity and the task of reconciling an Indigenous and Western way of life.
Reid is writer whose work has been published in the Barely South Review, the Richmond Review and The Province. He is a member of Heiltsuk First Nation, with a mix of Indigenous and English ancestry. He lives in Richmond, B.C. Beautiful Beautiful is his first book and is also a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
The Saroyan Prize fiction shortlist was determined by authors Sumbul Ali-Karamali and Elizabeth McKenzie and Scott Setrakian, President of the William Saroyan Foundation. For nonfiction, the judges are authors and past Saroyan Prize winners, Mark Arax and Lori Jakiela and musician Fritz Kasten.
The complete shortlists are below.
Fiction:
- A Nearby Country Called Love by Salar Abdoh
- Carmen and Grace by Melissa Coss Aquino
- The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land by Omer Friedlander
- Here Lies by Olivia Clare Friedman
- Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
- A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times by Meron Hadero
- Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
- Light Skin Gone to Waste by Toni Ann Johnson
- 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae Lee
- An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie
- Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng
- Beautiful Beautiful by Brandon Reid
- Company by Shannon Sanders
- A Map for the Missing by Belinda Huijuan Tang
- Dearborn by Ghassan Zeineddine
Nonfiction:
- The Hunger Book: A Memoir from Communist Poland by Agata Izabela Brewer
- A Living Remedy: A Memoir by Nicole Chung
- The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance by Rebecca Clarren
- A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing: A Memoir Across Three Continents by Mary-Alice Daniel
- The Hungry Season: A Journey of War, Love, and Survival by Lisa M. Hamilton
- Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time by Natalie Hodges
- I Would Meet You Anywhere: A Memoir by Susan Kiyo Ito
- The Wreck: A Daughter's Memoir of Becoming a Mother by Cassandra Jackson
- Farewell Transmission: Notes from Hidden Spaces by Will McGrath
- Orphan Bachelors: A Memoir by Fae Myenne Ng
- Hardship Alaska: A Memoir by Donald Proffit
- Ma and Me by Putsata Reang
- All Water Has Perfect Memory: A Memoir by Nada Samih-Rotondo
- Sink: A Memoir by Joseph Earl Thomas
- Beyond Innocence: The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt by Phoebe Zerwick
The winners will be announced in late summer or early fall.