Congratulations to all five finalists of the 2024 Fred Kerner Book Award
(in alphabetical order by last name):
Lucian Childs, Windsor, ON
Dreaming Home (Biblioasis)
LUCIAN CHILDS is a fiction writer whose debut, Dreaming Home (Biblioasis 2023), was shortlisted for the 2024 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in literary fiction. He was a Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop and a finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Short Story Award. He is a contributing editor of the Lambda Literary finalist, Building Fires in the Snow: a collection of Alaska LGBTQ short fiction and poetry. His stories and reviews have appeared in the journals Grain, The Puritan, Plenitude and Prairie Fire, among others. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, he currently resides in Toronto, Ontario.
JUDGES’ COMMENTS:
“From the opening sentence we know we’re in the hands of a master craftsman. This novel opens up through multiple, connected points of view into a landscape that’s deeply problematic: from the damaged father, through the gay son who refuses to accept the deal he’s been dealt, to the sister who propelled them into this abyss. Trauma impacts them all in unexpected and illuminating ways. Challenging and poignant, but ultimately joyful.”
“A poignant and sensitively written story of the profound repercussions of a forced outage of a young boy by his sibling and the decades-long fallout that ensues for him, his family members, and his lovers. Told from multiple perspectives, the narrative is compelling and heartbreaking, with a gentle hint of humour.”
Ifeoma Chinwuba, Ottawa, ON
Sons of the East (Griots Lounge Canada)
IFEOMA CHINWUBA was a child refugee in the Nigeria-Biafra War. Three months after her mother and 8 siblings arrived in Libreville, Gabon in the late sixties, she was sent to a foster family in Ireland. Ifeoma was 8 years old. Repatriated after the war and reunited with her family, she completed her schooling. Ifeoma obtained a B.A in French from the University of Benin, Nigeria and an M.Sc. from the University of Lagos, Akoka. She joined the Nigerian Foreign Service and was appointed Ambassador to the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire in 2014. Her books include Merchants of Flesh (ANA Prose Prize 2004) Fearless, Waiting for Maria (ANA Prose Prize 2008; longlist of Commonwealth Writers Prize 2008), African Romance (2013) and Head Boy (2019). Ifeoma Chinwuba was Writer-in-Residence, University of Alberta 2021-2022 where she edited The Pandemic And Me, a collection of short stories from different writers.
JUDGES’ COMMENTS:
“A captivating voice draws the reader into the internal dynamics that throw this Nigerian family into conflict, both personal and political. The events that follow only serve to deepen the conflict and challenge the reader to re-evaluate their preconceptions about the politics and social conditions of Africa. The prose is rich and dynamic, the story is important and engaging, and ultimately powerful. A triumph in anyone’s terms.”
“Chinwuba paints a vivid picture of Nigeria’s Igbo culture, its apprenticeship system, its market culture, and the challenges of its social structure. With this as a backdrop, she weaves a rich, complex, and fascinating story about an Igbo family’s journey through love, jealousy, greed, sibling rivalry, and family drama.”
Kathryn Mockler, Victoria, BC
Anecdotes (Book*hug Press)
KATHRYN MOCKLER is the author of the story collection Anecdotes (Book*hug Press, 2023), which was a finalist for the 2024 Trillium Book Award and shortlisted for the 2023 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. She co-edited the print anthology Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis (Coach House Books, 2020) and runs the literary newsletter Send My Love to Anyone. She teaches screenwriting and fiction in the Writing Department at the University of Victoria.
JUDGES’ COMMENTS:
“Kathryn Mockler challenges our preconceptions about what a short-story is and can be with this collection. Like Lydia Davis before her, she pushes the envelope on this form, opening new vistas for writers who are bound to follow her lead. Particularly engaging are the stories that play with form to bring us new perspectives on story-telling. In any collection this approach would be brave and challenging. When taking on topics like sexual violence, abuse and environmental change it rises above those laudable aims and achieves something more profound: pure art, gracefully achieved.”
“Anecdotes is a highly original and an intentionally jarring hybrid collection in four distinct parts. Mockler’s bold and darkly playful approach to exploring some of the big issues of our time is an authentic and empowering call to action to anyone who’s paying attention.”
Lara Jean Okihiro, Toronto, ON, and Janis Bridger, Vancouver, BC
Obaasan’s Boots (Second Story Press)
LARA OKIHIRO is a writer and researcher who, intrigued by the power of words as a kid, eventually earned a BA, MA (Goldsmiths, UK), and PhD (Toronto) in literature. Her relationship with her grandparents and living abroad encouraged her to study the Japanese Canadian internment, and she has since taught, lectured, and published internationally. Lara’s children’s novel, Obaasan’s Boots, co-written with her cousin, traces her family’s experience of being uprooted and dispossessed. Currently, she’s completing a book on hoarding in Japanese Canadian literature and beginning another about a magical world of ancestors and fairies.
JANIS BRIDGER is an educator and writer who has many creative outlets and a love for the outdoors. She lives in Vancouver, Canada, close to where her Japanese Canadian grandparents lived before being interned. Janis earned a diploma in Professional Photography (Langara College), a Bachelor of Education and General Studies (Simon Fraser University) and a Master of Education (University of Alberta), specializing in teacher-librarianship. Social justice, diversity, and kindness are paramount in her life and embedded in her everyday teaching.
JUDGES’ COMMENTS:
“A fabulous little book, illuminating a painful period in Canada’s past with compassion and sensitivity. Lou and Charlotte’s journey into their grandmother’s past unfolds organically. The prose is simple and unadorned, the better to serve a profoundly moving story.”
“Skillfully incorporating narrative perspectives from both the past and present, this novel gives middle-grade readers an age-appropriate glimpse into the atrocities inflicted on Japanese Canadians during the Second World War internments. Young readers gain valuable insight into the debilitating impacts of racism and misguided perceptions, not only on the communities that experience them directly but also on the generations that follow.”
Caroline Vu, Montreal, QC
Catinat Boulevard (Freehand Books)
Caroline Vu was born in Vietnam and left her native country at 11. She is the author of three novels. Palawan Story, That Summer in Provincetown and Catinat Boulevard. All three have been translated into French. Palawan Story won the 2016 Fred Kerner Prize. Catinat Boulevard was a finalist for the 2023 Hugh McLennan Prize. After extended stays in Ontario, Latin America and Europe, Caroline is back in Montreal where she works as a family physician.
JUDGES’ COMMENTS:
“Caroline Vu’s Catinat Boulevard is an ambitious novel. It spans six decades and two continents, but it never feels unwieldy. The very different perspectives of the two main characters (Mai and Mai Ly) allow Vu to lay bare the consequences of war. It is a brave and necessary book that will haunt readers, and give them a fresh perspective on Vietnam and the trauma that followed.”
“Caroline Vu’s historical saga deftly explores the damaging ongoing legacies of the Vietnam war and casts a candid lens on lives intertwined and divided by naiveté, privilege, passion, and betrayal.”
The winner will be announced at a virtual Fred Kerner Book Award readings event in Early September, with the event date to be announced in August.