Seth Rogen, Jesse Wente, Perdita Felicien shortlisted for $10K Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

Actor and filmmaker Seth Rogen, journalist Jesse Wente and Olympian Perdita Felicien are shortlisted for the 2022 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.

The annual $10,000 prize recognizes the year's best debut books by Canadian writers. This year, winners from three categories will be selected: nonfiction, literary fiction and romance.

Rogen is nominated in the nonfiction category for Yearbook, a collection of funny true stories from his stand-up comedy career as a teenager and adventures with famous people in Los Angeles.

Rogen is a comedy titan from Vancouver known for writing films like Superbad, starring in the Neighbours trilogy, The Interview and Knocked Up and producing hit TV shows like Invincible and The Boys. 

LISTEN | Seth Rogen on Q

Q39:23Seth Rogen on comedy, his debut book and where cannabis legalization went wrong in Canada

Seth Rogen is known as a comedy titan with a penchant for smoking pot. Now, he’s also an author. He joined Tom Power to talk about his debut book, Yearbook, which features a collection of hilarious personal essays about his early life in Canada.

Anishinaabe writer, broadcaster and arts leader Jesse Wente is a nonfiction nominee for his memoir Unreconciled. It weaves together Wente's personal story with a larger exploration of society, sports, art, popular culture and more. He shares his family's history, including his grandmother's experience in residential school, and his own frequent incidents of racial profiling by police. Wente argues that the notion of reconciliation between First Nations and Canada is not a realistic path forward.

• Reframing Indigenous stories in joy: Jesse Wente

Wente is the co-executive director of the Indigenous Screen Office and chair of the Canada Council for the Arts. He has been an arts columnist for CBC Radio's Metro Morning for more than two decades, and also worked at the Toronto International Film Festival for 11 years.

LISTEN | Jesse Wente on The Next Chapter

20:49Jesse Wente on Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance

Jesse Wente talks to Shelagh Rogers about his memoir, Unreconciled.

World champion hurdler and broadcaster Felicien is also a nonfiction finalist for her memoir My Mother's Daughter. The book is a moving homage to Felicien's mother, Catherine, who, as a young woman in 1974, moved from St. Lucia to work as a nanny for a wealthy white family in Canada. Catherine endured racism, domestic violence and homelessness in her new country, but struggled forward to nurture her youngest daughter's incredible athletic talents to reach the world's greatest sports stadiums.

• 'I never talked about it and I am now:' Perdita Felicien on growing up in poverty

Felicien is a 10-time national champion, a two-time Olympian and became the first Canadian woman to win a gold medal at a track world championships. She now works as a sports broadcaster and is part of the CBC's team covering the Olympics.

LISTEN | Perdita Felicien on The Next Chapter

The Next Chapter5:55Perdita Felicien takes our Proust questionnaire

Olympian and TV broadcaster Perdita Felicien can now add author to her extensive list of accomplishments. Her new book is a memoir called, My Mother's Daughter. Perdita takes our Proust questionnaire.

Toronto author Ashley Audrain made the literary fiction shortlist for her bestselling thriller The Push. The novel follows a first-time mother named Blythe, who grows increasingly anxious over the fact that she feels no connection to her newborn daughter Violet. The birth of her second child, Sam, on the other hand, is everything she imagined. The Push is a dark story about motherhood and the pressure of expectation.

• Read an excerpt from The Push by Ashley Audrain

Ashley Audrain is a writer living in Toronto and the former publicity director of Penguin Canada. The Push is her first novel.

LISTEN | Ashley Audrain on The Sunday Magazine

The Sunday Edition20:48Ashley Audrain on motherhood and her debut novel 'The Push'

Host Piya Chattopadhyay speaks to Ashley Audrain about her debut novel, The Push — a searing look at motherhood told as a psychological thriller. The conversation explores the expectations put on moms, including the ones they put on themselves; what goes wrong when motherhood and womanhood get too entangled; and goes beyond "bad mom" tropes to delve into the things mothers wish they could say — and why we all need to listen when they do say them.

The three winners of the 2022 Kobo Emerging Writer Prizes will be announced on June 22, 2022. The shortlists were selected by Kobo's team of booksellers.

There is one judge picking a winner from each category: novelist and journalist Katherine Ashenburg will be the nonfiction judge, award-winning novelist and short story writer Heather O'Neill will be the literary fiction judge and bestselling romance author Nana Malone will judge the romance prize.

Here are all the 2022 Kobo Emerging Writer finalists.

Nonfiction:

• Don't Call It a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman
• Measuring Up: A Memoir of Fathers and Sons by Dan Robson
• Yearbook by Seth Rogen
• Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance by Jesse Wente
• Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy by Rachel Ricketts
• My Mother's Daughter: A Memoir of Struggle and Triumph by Perdita Felicien

Literary fiction:

• The Quiet is Loud by Samantha Garner
• Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson
• Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung
• Spindrifts by A-M Mawhiney
• The Push by Ashley Audrain
• Personal Attention Roleplay by Helen Chau Bradley

Romance:

• New Girl in Little Cove by Damhnait Monaghan
• Cure Bound by M.L. Philpitt
• Sarah Meets Mace by Ryan James Patrick
• The Way Maker by Arlie Sheelin
• For the Record by Nicole Lam
• Dad Jokes and Pine Cones by C.J. Banks