The shortlist has been announced for the Toronto Book Awards and it includes previous winners Dionne Brand and Cary Fagan. Brand was  nominated for this year’s Griffin Poetry prize for her work The Blue Clerk and spoke with Zoomer Media at the June  event.

The other nominated authors are Mike Barnes, Ian Williams and Didier Leclair. All five will each receive $1,000 and the winning book will receive an additional $10,000. The winner will be announced at the Toronto Book Awards annual event October 2nd. Tickets are free to the public and can be reserved on Sept. 11 through the Toronto Public Library Website.

Here is the shortlist

Be With: Letters to a Caregiver, Mike Barnes (Biblioasis)
Reproduction, Ian Williams (Random House Canada)
The Student, Cary Fagan (Freehand Books)
Theory, Dionne Brand (Knopf Canada)
This Country of Mine, Didier Leclair; Elaine Kennedy,  (Deux Voiliers Publishing)