(Nuala Haughey)

Irish-Canadian novelist Ed O’Loughlin is one of 13 authors longlisted for this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, a £25,000 award recognizing exceptional books of the genre published in the U.K., Ireland, or any of the Commonwealth countries. The Toronto-born, Dublin-based author is nominated for his 2017 novel Minds of Winter (House of Anansi Press), which follows two characters whose search for answers to familial mysteries ties them to the infamous Franklin expedition and the history therein.

The shortlisted authors, to be named later in March, will each receive a £1,000 prize. The winner will be announced at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose‚ Scotland, June 15–18.