Â鶹´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Calgary's Suzette Mayr on short list for US$150,000 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction

Suzette Mayr accepts her award as the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner in Toronto, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston Suzette Mayr accepts her award as the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner in Toronto, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
Share
TORONTO -

Calgary author Suzette Mayr has been shortlisted for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.

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

Mayr made the cut for her historical novel "The Sleeping Car Porter," which won the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize last November.

It's told from the perspective of a queer Black train porter who stays up all night to serve white passengers in 1929.

The rest of the short list is comprised of U.S. authors: Daphne Palasi Andreades for "Brown Girls'," Fatimah Asghar for "When We Were Sisters," Talia Lakshmi Kolluri for "What We Fed to the Manticore" and Alexis Schaitkin for "Elsewhere."

Each runner-up gets US$12,500. The award will be handed out at an event in Nashville on May 4.

The Carol Shields prize is named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning Canadian-American author of "The Stone Diaries" and is touted as the largest literary purse for women writers.

Shields was born in Oak Park, Ill., in 1935 and moved to Canada in 1957. She died from complications of breast cancer in Victoria in 2003, at age 68.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2023.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

A Manitoba man convicted of murder 50 years ago has been acquitted. Clarence Woodhouse was found guilty in 1974 of fatally beating and stabbing a restaurant worker in downtown Winnipeg.

A health official has confirmed a child in Ontario has died after they came in contact with a rabid bat.

More sexual assault charges have been filed against billionaire Frank Stronach with the Canadian businessman now facing a total of 18 charges.

An Ontario family was planning a religious trip to Saudi Arabia that included 10 people, but when they were checking in for their flights, the family discovered some of their tickets were fake.

Local Spotlight

The grave of a previously unknown Canadian soldier has been identified as a man from Hayfield, Man. who fought in the First World War.

Moving into the second week of October, the eastern half of Canada can expect some brisker fall air to break down from the north

What does New Westminster's təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre have in common with a historic 68,000-seat stadium in Beijing, an NFL stadium and the aquatics venue for the Paris Olympics? They've all been named among the world's most beautiful sports venues for 2024.

The last living member of the legendary Vancouver Asahi baseball team, Kaye Kaminishi, died on Saturday, Sept. 28, surrounded by family. He was 102 years old.

New data from Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley shows a surge in supply and drop in demand in the region's historically hot real estate market.

On Saturday night at her parents’ home in Delaware, Ont. the Olympic bronze medallist in pole vault welcomed everyone who played a role in getting her to the podium in Paris.

A tale about a taxicab hauling gold and sinking through the ice on Larder Lake, Ont., in December 1937 has captivated a man from that town for decades.

When a group of B.C. filmmakers set out on a small fishing boat near Powell River last week, they hoped to capture some video for a documentary on humpback whales. What happened next blew their minds.

A pizza chain in Edmonton claims to have the world's largest deliverable pizza.