Mona Awad has won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award for her debut novel, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. Brown selected the shortlist from the more than 50 novels that were submitted by publishers for consideration. The winner was selected by Nick Mount, fiction editor of The Walrus, author Gurjinder Basran and head juror, Russell Brown. "[Fat] is a word that carries with it a very strong stigma, a lot of assumptions, a lot of set images," Awad said on stage shortly before learning she won. In honour of the award's 40th anniversary this year, Awad will take home $40,000.

Source: CBC News May 26, 2016 20:22 UTC