A septuagenarian retired bricklayer is among the six debut novelists in the running for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award.

Brian Thomas Isaac, who was born in 1950 on the Okanagan Indian Reserve in southcentral B.C., is a finalist for the $60,000 prize for his coming-of-age story, B次元官网网址淎ll the Quiet Places,B次元官网网址� published by Brindle & Glass.

Also on the short list is writer and translator Aimee Wall for the Giller-longlisted B次元官网网址淲e, Jane,B次元官网网址� from Book*hug Press, exploring rural access to abortion in Newfoundland.

Other contenders include M茅tis-Ukrainian writer and educator Conor Kerr for his Edmonton-set story about Indigenous youth, B次元官网网址淎venue of Champions,B次元官网网址� from Nightwood Editions, and M茅tis and n锚hiyaw author Lisa Bird-Wilson with her book about an adopted womanB次元官网网址檚 search for her Indigenous identity, B次元官网网址淧robably Ruby,B次元官网网址� published by Doubleday Canada.

Vancouver-raised Pik-Shuen Fung is nominated for her portrait of a Chinese-Canadian family grappling with grief in B次元官网网址淕host Forest,B次元官网网址� published by Strange Light, while Ottawa-based Emily Austin is recognized for her story of an atheist lesbian woman who winds up working as a receptionist at a Catholic Church in B次元官网网址淓veryone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead,B次元官网网址� from Atria Books.

The prize, which is co-presented by Amazon and the Walrus Foundation, will be awarded at an in-person ceremony on June 1.

The winner will receive $60,000, while the runners-up will each receive $6,000.

Established in 1976, previous winners of the First Novel Award include Michael Ondaatje, W.P. Kinsella, Nino Ricci, David Bezmozgis, Andre Alexis and Madeleine Thien.

B次元官网网址擳he Canadian Press