Eighteen finalists over three categories have been announced for the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.

Awarded annually, the prizes 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; this year’s award is for speculative fiction.

The winners will be announced on June 22.

Nonfiction

• Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (HarperCollins Canada)
• Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Random House Canada)
• Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces by Elamin Abdelmahmoud (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada)
• For the Love of Learning: A Year in the Life of a School Principal by Kristin Phillips (Simon & Schuster)
• Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising by Brandi Morin (House of Anansi Press)
• Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery by Harrison Mooney (Patrick Crean Editions/HarperCollins Canada)

Literary Fiction

• Wild Fires by Sophie Jai (The Borough Press/HarperCollins Canada)
• The Broken Places by Frances Peck (NeWest Press)
• We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama (McClelland & Stewart/PRHC)
• Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi (House of Anansi Press)
• Tear by Erica McKeen (Invisible Publishing)
• The Island of Forgetting by Jasmine Sealy (Harper Avenue/HarperCollins Canada)

Speculative Fiction

• Radium Girl by by Sofi Papamarko (Buckrider Books/Wolsak & Wynn)
• Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson (McClelland & Stewart/PRHC)
• In Veritas by C.J. Lavigne (NeWest Press)
• The World Collective by Susan Cullen (Chicken House Press)
• The Petting Zoos by K.S. Covert (Dundurn Press)
• Dying Wishes by Anitha Krishnan (published by Anitha Krishnan)