Jon Claytor’s Nowhere has been shortlisted for the 2026 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. Claytor is a Sackville-based author and artist whose work ranges from oil painting and watercolour to comics. Nowhere, released in March 2026, is a hilarious and sinister reflection on growing up in a world where monsters are real.
Not only is Nowhere Claytor’s first novel, but it is also the first graphic novel to ever appear on the AFNA’s shortlist in its 50-year history.
"What a surreal thrill to see Nowhere on the amazing shortlist for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. It is a novel about the space between isolation and connection, growing up in a world of monsters, and the solace offered by a sketchbook. Writing, and living, can be a solitary experience full of uncertainty. To find connection with other writers and readers through this book makes all the silent hours, drawing, and writing, more than worth it," said Claytor.
In this dreamlike meditation on adolescence and the absurdity of small-town life, Jon Claytor creates an off-beat world of richly texted visuals where monsters are real, zombies rule the night, vampires seek therapy, and depressed clowns appear without warning. Novelist and music critic Sean Michaels has compared it to “a tender horror movie of small-town childhood and its everyday apocalypse,” while novelist and screenwriter Heather O’Neill describes Nowhere as “a deeply profound, poetic, and unforgettable work, with a vocabulary that is utterly original.”
Claytor is one of six authors on the prize’s shortlist, which was announced May 6. The winner will be announced in Toronto on Thursday, June 4, and will be awarded $60,000. The prize is co-presented by The Walrus.
“This year’s entries included books of understated beauty, books of heart-wrenching drama, books of astonishing invention, books crackling with spiky energy, books that wrap themselves around you or drop you through a trap door,” wrote category judge Anne Fleming in the shortlist announcement. “Choosing a shortlist was kind of agonizing but ultimately satisfying, even joyful. What a beautifully heterogeneous bunch! Each of these books are books that matter.”
