The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction has revealed its 2026 longlist of 15 works by women and non-binary writers from Canada and the United States. The prize, the largest of its kind, awards $150,000 US to the winner. Four authors with Canadian ties are among the nominees.
The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, the first and largest English-language literary prize celebrating creativity and excellence in fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the United States, announced its 2026 longlist on March 10, 2026. The list includes 15 books, open to English-language works published in the US or Canada, including translations, with writers required to be citizens or permanent residents of those countries.
Among the longlisted titles are Audition by Katie Kitamura, which was on the 2025 Booker Prize shortlist, and A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar, featured on Bookends with Mattea Roach. Cannon by Lee Lai is the only graphic novel on the list. Four authors with Canadian connections made the cut: Jaime Burnet for the novel milktooth, about a woman confronting abusive behavior in her relationship; Nina Dunic for the short story collection Suddenly Light, exploring life's joys and challenges; Lee Lai for Cannon, in which a cook destroys her workplace and seeks understanding from a friend; and Amanda Leduc for Wild Life, a tale of a missionary saved by talking hyenas leading to a new religion and reckoning with wildness.
The full longlist comprises: The Edge of Water by Olufunke Grace Bankole; Sea, Poison by Caren Beilin; milktooth by Jaime Burnet; Suddenly Light by Nina Dunic; Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards; Hellions by Julia Elliott; Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma; The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes; Audition by Katie Kitamura; Cannon by Lee Lai; Wild Life by Amanda Leduc; A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar; The Morgue Keeper by Ruyan Meng; The Sea Gives Up the Dead by Molly Olguín; and Lion by Sonya Walger.
Jury chair Carmen Maria Machado stated, “It’s been such an honour and a privilege to encounter this body of work by women and non-binary authors, who are writing some of the most exciting literature I’ve seen in an age." The jury also includes Canadian writer Ivan Coyote, Métis writer Cherie Dimaline, and American authors Chitra Divakaruni and Deesha Philyaw.
The shortlist will be revealed on April 21, with the winner announced in Toronto on June 2. The winner receives $150,000 US (approximately $205,350 Cdn), while each of the other four shortlisted authors gets $12,500 US (approximately $17,099 Cdn). The prize was founded by Susan Swan, Janice Zawerbny, and Don Oravec. Last year's winner was Canisia Lubrin for Code Noir.
The prize is named after Carol Shields, one of Canada's best-known writers, whose novels include The Stone Diaries, which won the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction in 1992 and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1993, as well as Larry's Party and Unless. She died in 2003.
