Janika Oza is a Canadian novelist. Her debut novel, A History of Burning, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2023 Governor General's Awards, the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction,[1] and the 2024 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.[2]
Her short story "Fish Stories" won the 2022 O. Henry Award.
Biography
editIn a piece for Toronto Star discussing her ancestry, Oza explained that her "great-grandparents left British-ruled India for British-ruled East Africa in the early 1900s, where three generations of my family settled, first in Kenya and then in Uganda, until they were exiled in 1972 under the dictator Idi Amin’s decree to expel all Asians from the country." She was the first person in her family to be born in Canada. She further explained that this ancestry helped her explore the questions raised in A History of Burning.[3]
Oza was a school settlement worker.[4]
Awards and honours
edit| Year | Title | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Exile | Malahat Review Open Season Award | Winner | [5] |
| 2019 | The Gift of Choice | CBC Short Story Prize | Longlist | [5][6] |
| 2020 | Kenyon Review Short Fiction Award | Winner | [5] | |
| 2022 | "Fish Stories" | O. Henry Award | Winner | [5] |
| 2023 | A History of Burning | Governor General's Award for English-language fiction | Shortlist | [7][8] |
Works
editReferences
edit- ^ https://carolshieldsprizeforfiction.com/prizenews/2024shortlist
- ^ Cassandra Drudi, "2024 Amazon First Novel Award shortlist revealed". Quill & Quire, May 9, 2024.
- ^ Oza, Janika (2023-06-10). "What does the question 'Where Are You From?' mean when you've always lived here?". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2023-11-01. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
- ^ Gillingham, Jamie (25 August 2023). "New Canadian Writers: Janika Oza". The Cardiff Review. Archived from the original on 2023-08-31. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
- ^ a b c d Raymundo, Bridget (2023-09-01). "Janika Oza's new novel is about how 1 act of rebellion changes a family for generations". CBC Books. Archived from the original on 2023-09-23. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
- ^ Codrington, Dionne (2019-04-17). "31 writers make the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize longlist". CBC Books. Archived from the original on 2023-07-07. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
- ^ "Suzette Mayr, Iain Reid among finalists for Governor General's Literary Awards". Burnaby Now. 2023-10-25. Archived from the original on 2023-10-29. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
- ^ Drudi, Cassandra (2023-10-25). "Suzette Mayr, Robert Bringhurst, Kim Spencer among 2023 Governor General's Literary Awards finalists". Quill and Quire. Archived from the original on 2023-11-01. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
- ^ S. Kirk Walsh (April 28, 2023). "An Exiled Family Rises From the Ashes". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 14, 2023. Retrieved November 1, 2023.