Toronto writer Jamaluddin Aram is one of the winners of the 2024 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prizes.
The annual $10,000 prize recognizes the year’s best debut books by Canadian writers in three categories: nonfiction, literary fiction and mystery.
Aram won the literary fiction prize for his novel Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday.
Set in 1990s Kabul, Afghanistan against the backdrop of civil war, Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday is a journey through the town of Wazirabad, which overflows with every kind of character imaginable.
From a daughter selling scorpions to keep her mother from having to sell herself to the militiamen trying to solve a string of burglaries, to a bonesetter who reads his cat poetry, Aram provides a portrait of a community in its most mundane and extraordinary as the people of Wazirabad try to carve out a home and a life amidst war.
“Aram’s writing evokes striking dissonances and contrasts that toggle between youth and age, between beauty and the grotesque, and between kindness and brutality” said judge Jeanette Lynes in a press statement.
“The novel’s world is earthy, visceral, sharp-edged, yet also, at times teeters on the brink of hallucination, madness, or, conversely, miracle, in ways that reveal humans’ capacity for belief and hope.”
Aram is a Toronto-based documentary filmmaker, producer and writer from Kabul, Afghanistan. Aram’s short story This Hard Easy Life was a finalist for RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers in 2020. He was selected as a mentee by Michael Christie for the Writers’ Trust of Canada mentorship program for his book Marchoba, which became Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday.
The Sunday Magazine21:14Focus on the ‘slow times’ to see life amid wartime, says Afghan writer
The image of Afghanistan that we tend to see in the news is one of constant conflict. But Toronto-based writer Jamaluddin Aram is out to show another side of life during wartime. His debut novel Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on a Wednesday showcases everyday life in an Afghan neighbourhood amid the country’s civil war in the 1990s. He joins David Common to discuss how his own childhood in Kabul influenced the book, and why he wanted to show how life in Afghanistan is as full as anywhere else in the world.
Jérémie Harris won the nonfiction award for Quantum Physics Made Me Do It.
Quantum Physics Made Me Do It aims to tackle questions around the implications of science. We know that science is real, but what does it all mean for our place in the universe and for the future of humanity? This book offers an accessible and engaging look at the complex world as mapped out by modern physics.
“Physicist Jérémie Harris tackles complex questions in conversational and hilarious language,” said judge Robyn Doolittle in a press statement.
“Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be unable to put down a book on quantum mechanics, but this book is a total page-turner that made me question reality, from zombie cats to parallel universes.”
Harris is a physicist-turned Silicon Valley AI startup founder. His research in quantum mechanics has been featured in many of the world’s top physics journals.
Keziah Weir won the mystery award for The Mythmakers, a story that examines who owns stories and who is allowed to tell them. It follows Sal Cannon, a journalist whose life is in shambles following the revelation that a profile she wrote is full of inaccuracies.
When she reads a short story by Martin Keller, an author she met at a conference years ago, she realizes that the story is about her and the moment they met. Determined to read the full manuscript, Sal learns that Martin is dead and finds herself on a journey to find Martin’s widow and learn the true story.
“Ambitious and inventive, The Mythmakers is a page-turner about the boundaries of creative work, memory, and identity,” said judge Ashley Audrain in a press statement.
“I loved Weir’s assured writing, complex characters, and unexpected twists in this debut.”
Weir is an editor at Vanity Fair whose writing has appeared in New York Times, Elle, Esquire, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She grew up in California and British Columbia but now lives in Maine.
Last year’s winners were Harrison Mooney in the nonfiction category for his memoir Invisible Boy, Erica McKeen in the fiction category for the novel Tear, and K.S. Covert in the speculative fiction category for The Petting Zoos.