CBC: Winnipeg author wins $40K national First Novel Award

CBC reports on U of M alumnus Michael Kaan [B.A.(Hons.)/1990, B.S.W./1997, M.B.A./2009] winning a major literary prize:

A Winnipeg writer has won a prestigious $40,000 award for new novelists in Canada.

Michael Kaan received the 2018 Amazon.ca First Novel Award for his book The Water Beetles on Tuesday.

The book is loosely based on the diaries of Kaan’s own father, Kaan said. It tells story of a family as they look to survive the 1941 Japanese invasion of Hong Kong through the perspective of a child who escapes to the countryside with his siblings to avoid the soldiers.

“It’s 90 per cent true,” Kaan said. “There’s very little in the story that isn’t reflective of his [Kaan’s father’s] experiences.”

Published by Goose Lane Editions, The Water Beetles was also a finalist for the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.

Read the full story here.