Four debut novels among the Writers’ Trust fiction short list

TORONTO – Four debut novels are on the short list for the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s fiction prize.

Toronto’s Téa Mutonji and Zak Jones are among the nominees for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize that awards $70,000 to the best Canadian novel or short story collection of the year.

Mutonji was shortlisted for her first novel “My Person” about two friends navigating a breakup. Mutonji was previously nominated in 2019 for her short story collection.

Jones is nominated for his debut “Fancy Gap,” which is about three estranged family members in Appalachia struggling with loss and poverty. The Canadian-American author won a Writers’ Trust award for emerging writers in 2023.

Two other first-time novelists on the short list include Calgary’s Blair Palmer Yoxall, for his anti-Western “Treat Them as Buffalo” and Palestinian-Canadian writer Ashraf Zaghal for his coming-of-age novel “Seven Heavens Away.”

Meanwhile, Toronto-born poet and writer Lisa Robertson is nominated for “Riverwork,” a novel about a working-class woman who researches an ancient river buried underneath Paris.

A three-person jury selected the finalists from 118 titles by 62 publishing imprints. Each finalist will receive $7,500.

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The prize will be handed out at the annual Writers’ Trust Awards on Nov. 10.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2026.