February 18, 2010. We're so excited to congratulate both Carla Gunn and Michael Tregebov on their nominations for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book Award, Canada and the Caribbean. The shortlists for all the regional awards were announced earlier today.
Carla Gunn is nominated for Amphibian, published by Toronto press Coach House Books. Amphibian is the story of nine-year-old Phineas William Walsh, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the natural world. What he doesn't know, though, is why his grandfather died, or why waste-of-flesh Lyle always picks on him. Or why his parents can't live together — after all, when other mate-for-life animals have a fight, it's not like one of them just packs his bags and leaves the country. To make it to-infinity worse, he's worried sick about what humans are doing to the planet, and his mother is worried sick about him. But shouldn't everyone be losing sleep over the fact that a quarter of all Earth's mammals are on the Red List of Threatened Species? So, when a White's tree frog ends up in an aquarium in his fourth-grade classroom, it's the last straw, and he and his best friend, Bird, are spurred to action.
Michael Tregebov is nominated for The Briss, published by Vancouver press New Star Books. The Briss follows Sammy, the father of two grown children he would like to choke the life out of most of the time. His daughter just ended an affair that should have been kept a secret and his son has been gone for months on what should have been a ten-day tour of Israel. However, he gets mixed up with gush shalom Israelis who introduce him to a diaspora Palestinian woman, who he falls in love with, and, well, knocks up. A wildly entertaining and poignant novel, The Briss explores, on a personal level, family relationships, and on a political level, the continuing debate about Jewish identity and its connection to Israel and Palestine.
Prizes will be presented during the final programme for this years awards, which begins on the 7th of April in Delhi, India. For more information on the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and other nominees, click here.
