Calgary author Suzette Mayr has been shortlisted for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.

The US$150,000 prize celebrates excellence in fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the United States.

Mayr made the cut for her historical novel “The Sleeping Car Porter” which won the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize last year. It’s told from the perspective of a queer Black train porter who stays up all night to serve white passengers in 1929.

The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction award will be handed out at an event in Nashville on May 4.