Paola Ferrante is a Canadian writer from Toronto, Ontario, [1] whose debut short story collection Her Body Among Animals was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English fiction at the 2024 Governor General's Awards. [2]
She was previously shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award in 2020 for her poetry collection What to Wear While Surviving a Lion Attack, [3] and for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award in 2024 for Her Body Among Animals. [4]
The Danuta Gleed Literary Award is a Canadian national literary prize, awarded since 1998. It recognizes the best debut short fiction collection by a Canadian author in English language. The annual prize was founded by John Gleed in honour of his late wife, the Canadian writer Danuta Gleed, whose favourite literary genre was short fiction, and is presented by the Writers' Union of Canada. The incomes of her One for the Chosen, a collection of short stories published posthumously in 1997 by BuschekBooks and released by Frances Itani and Susan Zettell, assist in funding the award.
Billie Livingston is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Livingston grew up in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia. She lives in Vancouver.
Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, who published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006. The novel was subsequently selected for the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by singer-songwriter John K. Samson. Lullabies won the competition. The book also won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for eight other major awards, including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award and was longlisted for International Dublin Literary Award.
Kaie Kellough is a Canadian poet and novelist. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, raised in Calgary, Alberta, and in 1998 moved to Montreal, Quebec, where he lives.
Ian Williams is a Canadian poet and fiction writer. His collection of short stories, Not Anyone's Anything, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and his debut novel, Reproduction, was awarded the 2019 Giller Prize. His work has been shortlisted for various awards, as well.
Yasuko Nguyen Thanh is a Canadian writer and guitarist. She has lived in Canada, Mexico, Germany, and Latin America and she was named one of ten CBC Books' writers to watch in 2013. Thanh completed a Bachelor of Arts as well as a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria. She performs with the bands Jukebox Jezebel and 12 Gauge Facial, and lives with her two children in Victoria, British Columbia.
Souvankham Thammavongsa is a Laotian Canadian poet and short story writer. In 2019, she won an O. Henry Award for her short story, "Slingshot", which was published in Harper's Magazine, and in 2020 her short story collection How to Pronounce Knife won the Giller Prize.
Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer is a Canadian novelist and short story writer.
Kris Bertin is a Canadian writer, whose debut short story collection Bad Things Happen won the 2017 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the 2017 ReLit Award for Short Fiction.
Norma Dunning is an Inuk Canadian writer and assistant lecturer at the University of Alberta, who won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award in 2018 for her short story collection Annie Muktuk and Other Stories. In the same year, she won the Writers' Guild of Alberta's Howard O'Hagan Award for the short story "Elipsee", and was a shortlisted finalist for the City of Edmonton Book Award. She published in 2020 a collection of poetry and stories entitled Eskimo Pie: A Poetics of Inuit Identity.
Paige Cooper is a Canadian writer, originally from Canmore, Alberta and currently based in Montreal, Quebec. Her debut short story collection Zolitude was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize, a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction, a shortlisted finalist for the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction in 2018, and a runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Zolitude won the 2018 Concordia University First Book Prize. A French translation of Zolitude was published by Éditions du Boréal in 2019. The French translation was shortlisted for Le Prix de Traduction de la Fondation Cole in 2020.
Zalika Reid-Benta is a Canadian author. Her debut novel River Mumma was a finalist for the 2024 Trillium Book Award and received starred reviews from publications such as Publishers Weekly. It has been listed as one of the best fiction books of 2023 on numerous platforms, including CBC Books. The novel is a "magical realist story" inspired by Jamaican folklore. The main character, Alicia Gale, is a young Black woman having a quarter-life crisis, while adventuring through the streets of Toronto, Ontario.
Marianne Micros is a Canadian writer. A retired professor of English at the University of Guelph, her debut short story collection Eye was shortlisted for the 2019 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2019 Governor General's Awards.
Lisa Bird-Wilson is a Métis and nêhiyaw writer from Saskatchewan of indigenious origin.
Terence Young is a Canadian writer. He is most noted for his poetry collection The Island in Winter, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry at the 1999 Governor General's Awards and for the Gerald Lampert Award in 2000.
Frances Boyle is a Canadian writer from Ottawa, Ontario. Her debut short story collection Seeking Shade, published in 2020, was nominated for the 2021 ReLit Award for short fiction and the 2021 Danuta Gleed Literary Award.
Sidura Ludwig is a Canadian writer, whose short story collection You Are Not What We Expected was a shortlisted finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award in 2021, and won the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature that same year.
David Huebert is a Canadian writer from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Saeed Teebi is a Palestinian Canadian writer, whose debut short story collection Her First Palestinian was published in 2022.
Nada Alić is a Croatian-Canadian writer based in Los Angeles. Her debut short story collection Bad Thoughts was published by Vintage Books in 2022. Bad Thoughts was a New York Times Editors' Choice pick and a runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award in 2023. Her short story The Intruder was shortlisted for the CBC Literary Prize in 2019.