COOK IN THE RUNNING FOR A $10K LITERARY PRIZE
Jamaican Canadian Writer Christina Cooke in the Running for $10,000 Prize Earlier this week, Rakuten Kobo announced the shortlist for its 2025 Emerging Writer Prize—and one Caribbean Canadian new author is among the finalists. With its Emerging Writer Prize, Rakuten Kobo aims to raise the profile of debut authors by recognizing exceptional books written by first-time Canadian authors in three categories: Literary Fiction, Nonfiction, and one of three types of genre fiction—Romance, Speculative Fiction, or Mystery. One of the nominated authors is Christina Cooke, for her novel Broughtupsy . Cooke, a Jamaican Canadian fiction writer and essayist—not a con artist, she notes—is originally from Jamaica and now resides in New York City as a Canadian citizen. Broughtupsy tells the story of Akúa, a young woman who travels to Jamaica hoping to reconnect with her estranged older sister, Tamika. Over the course of three fateful weeks, the sisters revisit significant places from ...