Nova Scotia author lands on short list for $40K prize

A Nova Scotia writer is in the running for the $40,000 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.

Catherine Cooperjoins several Canadian authors on the award'sshort list. Her firstnovel, White Elephant,tells the story ofa doctor who moves with his family from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone, where tensions arise soon after.

Others on the list

Yasuko Thanh could be in line for another significant literary prize. The Victoria author is being recognized for Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains, which was awarded the $25,000 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize last year.

Winnipeg author Katherena Vermette also made the short list for The Break, which was a 2016 finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

Vancouver-born, Montreal-based poet Kaie Kellough has a nod for Accordeon.

Rounding out the short list is So Much Loveby Hamilton-born author Rebecca Rosenblum..

Formerly the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the prize has been handed out for 40 years honouring and launching the careers of notable Canadian novelists, with past winners including Michael Ondaatje, W.P. Kinsella, Nino Ricci, Madeleine Thien, Joseph Boyden, David Bezmozgis and Andre Alexis.