Mohawk writer Alicia Elliott wins Amazon Canada First Novel Award

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TORONTO - Alicia Elliott has won the prestigious Amazon Canada First Novel Award.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/06/2024 (844 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Alicia Elliott has won the prestigious Amazon Canada First Novel Award.

She took home the $60,000 prize for “And Then She Fell,” which follows an Indigenous woman made to feel like an impostor in her wealthy Toronto neighbourhood while she tires to write a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story.

Elliott is a Mohawk writer who lives in Brantford, Ont.

Haudenosaunee author Alicia Elliott poses for a portrait at the offices of Penguin Random House Canada in Toronto, Thursday, March 21, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
Haudenosaunee author Alicia Elliott poses for a portrait at the offices of Penguin Random House Canada in Toronto, Thursday, March 21, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

She was previously shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction for her memoir “A Mind Spread Out on the Ground.”

Runners-up, who each receive $6,000, are “Empty Spaces” by Jordan Abel; Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall for “Tauhou;” “The Berry Pickers” by Amanda Peters; Janika Oza’s “A History of Burning;” and “As the Andes Disappeared,” written by Caroline Dawson and translated by Anita Anand.

Billy-Ray Belcourt, one of this year’s judges, says the short list offers a “panoramic view of the novel in 21st century Canada.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2024.

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