Sharon Bala
Sharon Bala | |
---|---|
![]() Bala at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival in 2018 | |
Born | Dubai, UAE |
Occupation | Writer |
Language | English |
Nationality | Canadian |
Alma mater | Queen's University University of Toronto |
Notable awards | Journey Prize (2017) |
Sharon Bala (born April 3, 1979) is a Canadian writer residing in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.[1]
Her debut novel, The Boat People, won the 2015 Percy Janes First Novel Award for unpublished manuscripts,[2] and was published by McClelland and Stewart and Doubleday in January 2018.[3] The book was internationally publicized as part of Penguin Random House's One World, One Book campaign.[4]
The book was selected for the 2018 edition of Canada Reads, where it was defended by Mozhdah Jamalzadah.[5] It also won the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, was a finalist for the 2018 amazon.ca First Novel Award,[6] and was shortlisted for the 2015 Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers[7] and the 2019 Thomas Head Raddall Award.[8]
Bala was the winner of the 2017 Journey Prize for her short story "Butter Tea at Starbucks",[9] and was longlisted for the 2017 National Magazine Award for fiction for her short story "Miloslav".[10] Her short fiction has appeared in Hazlitt, Grain, The Dalhousie Review, Riddle Fence, Room, Prism International, Maisonneuve, Joyland, and The New Quarterly, and in an anthology called Racket: New Writing From Newfoundland.[11]
Awards
- 2015 Percy Janes First Novel Award for The Boat People
- 2017 Journey Prize for "Butter Tea at Starbucks," published in The New Quarterly[9]
Bibliography
- The Boat People (2018)
References
- ^ "Story is a Partnership: Interview with Sharon Bala". Prism International. December 18, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
- ^ "Author Sharon Bala launches first novel “The Boat People” in St. John's Thursday night". The Telegram, January 16, 2018.
- ^ "How Pier 21 in Halifax helped inspire Sharon Bala to write 'The Boat People'". CTV News. March 7, 2017. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
- ^ "Sharon Bala's debut novel, The Boat People, selected for PRH's international One World, One Book campaign". Quill & Quire. December 13, 2017.
- ^ "Meet the Canada Reads 2018 contenders". CBC Books, January 30, 2018.
- ^ "Sharon Bala, Omar El Akkad among finalists for $40K Amazon.ca First Novel Award". CBC Books, April 28, 2018.
- ^ "Eva Crocker, Sharon Bala, and Susie Taylor Shortlisted for the $5,000 Fresh Fish Award". The Overcast. October 9, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
- ^ "St. John's women all up for lucrative Atlantic fiction award". The Telegram. June 4, 2019.
- ^ a b "Hilary Weston Writers' Trust award winners announced at Toronto gala". The Globe and Mail. November 14, 2017. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
- ^ "National Magazine Awards: Fiction".
- ^ "Lisa Moore writing students create Racket". CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador. October 20, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
- 21st-century Canadian short story writers
- 21st-century Canadian novelists
- 21st-century Canadian women writers
- Canadian women short story writers
- Canadian women novelists
- Writers from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
- Sri Lankan emigrants to Canada
- Living people
- Canadian writers of Asian descent
- 1979 births
- Canadian writer stubs