Sarah Polley, Brandi Morin, Saeed Teebi shortlisted for $10K Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

Actor and filmmaker Sarah Polley, journalist Brandi Morin and writer and lawyer Saeed Teebi are shortlisted for the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.

The annual $10,000 prize recognizes the year's best debut books by Canadian writers. This year, winners from three categories will be selected: nonfiction, literary fiction and speculative fiction.

Polley is nominated in the nonfiction category for Run Towards the Danger, an essay collection about learning, changing and what it's like to live in one's body. The memoir reflects on memorable moments in Polley's life and the fallibility of memory.

The memoir won aToronto Book Award in 2022.

Polley, a Toronto-born actor, screenwriter and director, has made films like Women Talking and Take This Waltz. Her first feature-length film, Away from Her, was adapted from the Alice Munro story The Bear Came Over the Mountain. It was nominated for the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.

• From child actor to award-winning filmmaker: Sarah Polley tells her own story in her powerful new book

LISTEN |Sarah Polley in conversation with Eleanor Wachtel:

Writers and Company1:14:22From child actor to award-winning filmmaker: Sarah Polley tells her own story in her powerful new book

From her beginnings as a young performer, to becoming an internationally acclaimed filmmaker herself, Sarah Polley has made bold, unusual choices in her work. Her first feature film, Away from Her, won multiple awards, while her personal documentary, Stories We Tell, was included in the Top Ten Canadian Films of All Time. Now shes published a powerful collection of personal essays called Run Towards the Danger. They probe some of the most difficult experiences she has faced.

Morin is also nominated in the nonfiction category for her memoir, Our Voice of Fire. The book recounts Morin's experience as a foster kid, runaway and survivor of theMissing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis. Her memoir chronicles her journey to overcome adversity and is a pursuit for justice.

Morin is a Cree/Iroquois/French journalist from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta, covering Indigenous oppression in North America. In 2022, she won two National Native American Journalism awards for her work in Al Jazeera English. She has reported for CBC, the New York Times, Vice, National Geographic and more.

• What does it mean to tell Indigenous stories? These 3 authors explore the idea

LISTEN | Brandi Morinon The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers:

The Next Chapter16:15Three Indigenous authors on centring Indigenous values and knowledge in stories

Shelagh Rogers in conversation with Brandi Morin ( Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising), Eldon Yellowhorn (Sky Wolfs Call: The Gift of Indigenous Knowledge) and Cody Caetano (Half-Bads in White Regalia) about writing indigeneity on location at the Vancouver Writers Festival

Teebi's short story collection Her First Palestinian is nominated in the literary fiction category. The collection follows characters who grapple with their experiences as Palestinian immigrants in Canada. Her First Palestinian was initially a short story that made the CBC Short Story Prize shortlist in 2021.

Teebi is a Toronto lawyer and writer. He was born to Palestinian parents in Kuwait, and spent some time living in the U.S. His writing frequently engages the immigrant experience and his Palestinian background.

• The CBC Short Story Prize was instrumental to launching Saeed Teebi's writing career

LISTEN | Saeed Teebi on howthe CBC Short Story Prize helped his career:

CBC Books7:17Saeed Teebi on how the CBC Short Story Prize launched his writing career

The Toronto lawyer and author talks to Eli Glasner on Here & Now about his short story collection Her First Palestinian.

The three winners of the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prizes will be announced on June 22, 2023. The shortlists were selected by Kobo's team of booksellers.

There is one judge picking a winner from each category: journalist and writer Emily Urquhart will be the nonfiction judge, award-winning novelist CS Richardson will be the literary fiction judge and bestselling author and columnist Robert J.Wiersema will judge the speculative fiction prize.

Here are all the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer finalists.

Nonfiction:

• Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation by Andrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson
• Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley
• Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces by Elamin Abdelmahmoud
• For the Love of Learning: A Year in the Life of a School Principal by Kristin Phillips
• Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising by Brandi Morin
• Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery by Harrison Mooney

Literary fiction:

• Wild Fires by Sophie Jai
• The Broken Places by Frances Peck
• We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama
• Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi
• Tear by Erica McKeen
• The Island of Forgetting by Jasmine Sealy

Speculative fiction:

• Radium Girl by by Sofi Papamarko
• Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson
• In Veritas by C.J. Lavigne
• The World Collectiveby Susan Cullen
• The Petting Zoos by K.S. Covert
• Dying Wishes by Anitha Krishnan

Last year's winners were Jesse Wente in the nonfiction category for his memoir Unreconciled, Pik-Shuen Fung in the fiction category for the novel Ghost Forest and Damhnait Monaghan in the romance category for New Girl in Little Cove.