Authors from N.L. among finalists for Governor General's Literary Awards
Books by Joel Thomas Hynes, Kathleen Winter among 5 nominated for English fiction prize
Two authors from Newfoundland and Labrador are among the five writers nominated for the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award for English fiction.
And another author from the province is nominated for adapting a novel into a play.
Joel Thomas Hynes was nominated for his novel We'll all be Burnt in our Beds Some Night and Kathleen Winter is in the running for her book Lost in September.
Newfoundland author and playwright Robert Chafe is nominated in the drama category, for adapting a Wayne Johnston novel, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, into a stage play.
Winter, who has lived in Montreal for the past few years, writes about a homeless ex-soldier camping out on the streets in Quebec as he grapples with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Thomas Hynes's book follows a scrappy tough guy who hitchhikes across Canada to deliver his girlfriend's ashes to a beach on the outskirts of Vancouver. The book is also on the long list for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
The Governor General awards carry a prize of $25,000. They are given annually in seven English and seven French categories — for fiction, poetry, nonfiction and young people's literature.
Competing against Winter and Thomas Hynes are Alison MacLeod for All the Beloved Ghosts, Michael Kaan for The Water Beetles and Jocelyn Parr for Uncertain Weights and Measures.
The winners will be announced Nov. 1.