LONDON — Canadian-American writer Ruth Ozeki is among the finalists for this year's U.K.-based Women’s Prize for fiction.
Ozeki's bibliophilic novel “The Book of Form and Emptiness” is on the short list for the 30,000-pound (C$48,000) prize, announced Wednesday. It's about a boy who starts to hear voices after the death of his father and finds solace in his very own book.
Ozeki's 2013 novel, "A Tale for the Time Being," won the L.A. Times Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The author splits her time between Western Massachusetts, New York City, and British Columbia.
Acclaimed U.S. author Louise Erdrich is also vying for the prestigious prize with her 23rd novel "The Sentence," set in a haunted Minneapolis bookstore.
Also on the six-book short list is Trinidadian standup comedian Lisa Allen-Agostini's Caribbean story of gender violence and liberation, "The Bread the Devil Knead."
The finalists also include New Zealand author Meg Mason’s bold and funny novel about love and mental illness, “Sorrow and Bliss”; Turkish-British author Elif Shafak’s Cyprus-set love story “The Island of Missing Trees”; and U.S. writer Maggie Shipstead’s “Great Circle,” the story of a pioneering female aviator and her legacy.
Founded in 1996, the prize is open to female English-language writers from around the world. Previous winners include Zadie Smith, Tayari Jones and Maggie O’Farrell. Last year’s winner was Susanna Clarke’s literary fantasy “Piranesi.””
The winner of the 2022 Women’s Prize will chosen by a jury led by British journalist Mary Ann Sieghart and announced June 15 at a ceremony in London.
— With files from The Canadian Press
The Associated Press
