Recently, we announced the authors shortlisted for this year’s Amazon First Novel Award. This is the forty-sixth time this prize is being given out, and The Walrus is thrilled to be part of it.

For The Deep Dive, we spoke to Emily Austin, Lisa Bird-Wilson, Pik-Shuen Fung, Brian Thomas Isaac, Conor Kerr, and Aimee Wall. We asked each shortlisted author the same five questions, and we’ve taken some of their answers and woven them into this episode.

We ask five questions of the shortlisted authors:

Why is this novel important now? (Answered by Connor Kerr, Emily Austin, and Aimee Wall.)

Who is your protagonist? (Answered by Pik Shuen Fung and Lisa Bird Wilson.)

Why are first novels special? (Answered by Aimee Wall, Brian Thomas Isaac, and Connor Kerr.)

What advice do you have for someone writing their first novel? (Answered by Lisa Bird Wilson and Brian Thomas Isaac.)

Finally, we asked what all of the shortlisted authors are reading right now.

• https://thewalrus.ca/partnerships/amazon-first-novel-award/

This episode of The Deep Dive was produced by Simran Singh and Angela Misri and edited by Angela Misri. Thanks so much to all the authors for joining us this week.

Music for this podcast is provided by Audio Jungle. Our theme song is “This Podcast Theme” by Inplus Music. Additional music includes “Stay Cool” by Loops Lab and“Limit 70” by Kevin MacLeod.

“Limit 70” by Kevin MacLeod

Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70

Licence: filmmusic.io/standard-license