Billy-Ray Belcourt, Sheila Heti and Rawi Hage are among the notable names on the long list for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Last year’s winner, Omar El Akkad, revealed the 14 titles in contention for the 100-thousand-dollar honour at an event in St. John’s, Newfoundland, today.

Belcourt, a Cree scholar who became the youngest-ever winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2018, is proving to be a cross-genre prodigal talent with his Giller-nominated debut novel “A Minor Chorus.”

The book centres on an Indigenous queer narrator who ditches his doctoral dissertation to return to northern Alberta in hopes of writing a novel about his hometown.

Heti, who was a Giller finalist for 2018’s “Motherhood,” is vying for repeat success with “Pure Colour,” her new novel about “art, love, death and time.”

Hage nabbed his fourth Giller nomination for “Stray Dogs,” a globe-spanning short story collection that follows an array of travellers searching for connection.

The Giller finalists will be announced on September 27th.

(The Canadian Press)

Full list:

• Billy-Ray Belcourt for his novel, A Minor Chorus, published by Hamish Hamilton Canada, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada
• André Forget for his novel, In the City of Pigs, published by Dundurn Press
• Kim Fu for her short story collection, Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century, published by Coach House Books
• Rawi Hage for his short story collection, Stray Dogs, published by Knopf Canada, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada
• Sheila Heti for her novel, Pure Colour, published by Knopf Canada, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada
• Brian Thomas Isaac for his novel, All the Quiet Places, published by Touchwood Editions
• Conor Kerr for his novel, Avenue of Champions, published by Nightwood Editions
• Suzette Mayr for her novel, The Sleeping Car Porter, published by Coach House Books
• Noor Naga for her novel, If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, published by Graywolf Press
• André Narbonne for his novel Lucien & Olivia, published by Black Moss Press
• Dimitri Nasrallah for his novel, Hotline, published by Véhicule Press
• Fawn Parker for her novel, What We Both Know, published by McClelland & Stewart, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada
• Tsering Yangzom Lama for her novel, We Measure The Earth With Our Bodies, published by McClelland & Stewart, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada
• Antoine Wilson for his novel, Mouth to Mouth, published by Simon & Schuster Canada