Iran orphan
June 09th, 2020
Vancouver writer Nazanine Hozar has been shortlisted for the Annual First Novel Award for her debut novel, Aria (Knopf Canada 2019) about an orphan girl’s coming of age in revolutionary Iran. The prize is sponsored by Amazon Canada and The Walrus magazine and is in its 44th year.
Hozar has also been shortlisted for the 2020 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
Each of the shortlisted authors for the Amazon/Walrus prize will receive $6,000 and the winner will be awarded with the grand prize of $60,000.
The winner will be announced virtually on June 25, 2020.
Judges for the Annual First Novel Award this year include two B.C. authors: Shani Mootoo, author of multiple novels including Cereus Blooms at Night (shortlisted for the Giller Prize and longlisted for the Booker Prize); and Anakana Schofield, author of recently published Bina: A Novel in Warnings (Knopf Canada, Fleet, Little Brown UK), and whose debut novel Malarky (2012) won the 2012 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.
Hozar was born in Tehran, Iran, and moved to Canada as a child with her family in 1985. She is a graduate of UBC’s creative writing MFA program.
978-0-3458-1182-0
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