Debut authors Harrison Mooney, Erica McKeen, and K.S. Covert have won the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writers prizes for nonfiction, literary fiction, and speculative fiction, respectively.

Mooney was named this year’s winner for his memoir Invisible Boy (Patrick Crean Editions/HarperCollins Canada), which judge Emily Urquhart called “an extraordinary coming of age story of being Black in a white world, living in the shadow of fundamentalist religion, surviving abuse, and deciphering the deep complexities of transracial adoption, all narrated in a singular and clear voice.”

McKeen won the literary fiction prize for her debut Tear (Invisible Publishing). Fiction judge CS Richardson said “McKeen writes with an originality, sophistication, and expertise well beyond her years.”

Covert’s novel The Petting Zoos (Dundurn Press) won the prize for speculative fiction. Judge Robert J. Wiersema said the book “delivers exactly what many readers look for in their speculative fiction: something bracingly new, but rooted in a fundamental sense of humanity.”

Each winner receives $10,000 and promotional, marketing, and communications support from Kobo. The annual prizes, now in their ninth year, aim to raise the profiles of debut authors of fiction, nonfiction, and genre fiction. The genre fiction award honours one of three different genres each year.

The winners were chosen from shortlists announced earlier this spring.