Congratulations to Diana Fitzgerald Bryden, whose first novel No Place Strange has been been nominated for the first novel award for Canadian writers.  [Diana’s second poetry collection Clinic Day was published by Brick Books in 2004.]

No Place Strange by Diana Fitzgerald Bryden, about a romance between a Jewish girl and a Lebanese boy that is complicated by the turmoil in Beirut in the 1970s.

The $7,500 First Novel Award is administered by Amazon.ca with Quill and Quire.

The other five finalists:

Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant, about a woman who flies home to St. John’s N.L., when her father is injured, and stumbles across some dark secrets in her family’s past.

Goya’s Dog by Damian Tarnopolsky, about a British artist who thinks he’ll find his fortune in Second World War-era Toronto.

Diary of Interrupted Days by Dragan Todorovic, about a man returning to his native Belgrade.

Daniel O’Thunder by Ian Weir of B.C., about a prize-fighting evangelist in 1850s London.

The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon, about Aristotle teaching the young Alexander the Great.

Judges include Joseph Boyden, author of Through Black Spruce, Priscila Uppal, a Toronto-based poet and novelist, and Hal Wake, the artistic director of the Vancouver International Writers Festival.

The winner will be announced in April. Previous winners include Michael Ondaatje, Nino Ricci, Anne Michaels and Joseph Boyden.

Tags: brick books, Clinic Day, Diana Fitzgerald Bryden, No Place Strange

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