Valérie Bah wins $60K Amazon First Novel Award for Subterrane
The annual prize recognizes the best debut Canadian novel of the year
Quebec writer Valérie Bah has won the 2025 Amazon First Novel Award for Subterrane.
Presented by Amazon.ca and The Walrus, the $60,000 prize recognizes the best debut Canadian novel of the year.
In Subterrane, a documentary filmmaker named Zeynab is working on a project about Cipher Falls, the last affordable area on the margins of New Stockholm, a major metropolis and North American city. Cipher Falls is a polluted, industrial wasteland where artists and anti-capitalists are forced to work dead-end jobs to survive.
When a construction process threatens Cipher Falls' gentrification, some residents want to sabotage the plans.
Zeynab focuses her documentary on Doudou Laguerre, an activist who mysteriously died — and the potential that his death had something to do with his dissent against the construction project.
Bah was touched to be recognized for a novel that reflects on the creation of art under capitalist systems, they told CBC Books after the ceremony.
"This novel, for me, was kind of a going inward and I did a lot of self-questioning, questioning of the environment I live in," they said. "And it was a very political book as well. The fact of winning this award shows the resonance of those ideas."
Bah is an artist, filmmaker, documentarian, photographer and writer. Their collection The Rage Letters was translated from French by Kama La Mackerel. Subterrane is their first novel in English.
The other finalists were Andrew Boden for When We Were Ashes, Benjamin Hertwig for Juiceboxers, David Huebert for Oil People, Myriam Lacroix for How It Works Out and Natalie Sue for I Hope This Finds You Well. They will each receive $6,000.
The jury was composed of writers Jean Marc Ah-Sen, Liz Harmer and Chelene Knight.
Last year's winner was Alicia Elliott for And Then She Fell.
Other past winners include Stéphane Larue for The Dishwasher, Joy Kogawa for Obasan, katherena vermette for The Break, Michelle Good for Five Little Indians, Anne Michaels for Fugitive Pieces and Madeleine Thien for Certainty.
The 2025 youth short story winner was Vicky Zhu for her story Suzanne. She will receive $5,000 and her story will be published in The Walrus.
The other youth short story finalists were Emma Chappel for Lost Boy, Willow Greenfield for Autumn Nights, Thivya Jeyapalan for In The Chair, Victoria Nguyen for Heed My Prayers and Abbie Pasowisty for The Colour of Your Thoughts. They were selected by Shani Mootoo and will each take home $500.
