Eleanor Catton, Janika Oza shortlisted for Carol Shields Prize for Fiction

TORONTO — Eleanor Catton’s “Birnam Wood” is among the five finalists for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. 

The US$150,000 award celebrates excellence in fiction by women and non-binary authors in Canada and the United States, and is bankrolled by BMO.

“Birnam Wood,” a satirical eco-thriller by the Canadian-born, New Zealand-raised Catton, was also shortlisted for last year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize. 

Debut novelist Janika Oza of Toronto is a finalist for “A History of Burning,” the intergenerational saga of an Indo-Ugandan family uprooted by colonialism. The book was also shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award.

Canadian author Claudia Dey also made the Carol Shields short list for her book “Daughter,” about a woman’s fraught relationship with her novelist father.

Rounding out the short list are American writers Kim Coleman Foote for “Coleman Hill,” which follows two families’ journeys from south to north, and V. V. Ganeshananthan for “Brotherless Night,” about a young doctor caught in Sri Lanka’s civil war.

The winner will be announced at an event in downtown Toronto on May 13. Each runner-up will receive US$12,500.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press

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Eleanor Catton nominated for her novel “Birnam Wood” pauses for a photo as she arrives on the red carpet for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in Toronto, on Monday, November 13, 2023. Eleanor Catton’s “Birnam Wood” is among the five finalists for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

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