ABOUT

Sophie Jai is a novelist. Her award-winning, internationally recognized debut novel Wild Fires was published by HarperCollins in several countries.

She is currently working on her second novel as a Kellogg Scholar at the University of Oxford.

She was born and raised in Trinidad, grew up in Toronto, and currently lives between there and Oxford.

PUBLICATIONS

• A World Within Walls (Essay, Wasafiri Magazine, 2022)
• A Body Full of Women Writing (Essay, Sangam House, 2021)
• From the Writer in Residence (Essay, Oxford University Magazine, 2020)

ACCOLADES

• Finalist, 2023 Toronto Book Awards for Wild Fires
• Winner, 2023 Canadian Authors Association Fred Kerner Book Award for Wild Fires
• Winner, 2019 Borough Press & The Good Literary Agency Award for Wild Fires
• Shortlisted, 2023 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Wild Fires
• Longlist, 2019 Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a First Novel for Wild Fires
• Editor’s Choice, The Bookseller for Wild Fires, 2022
• A Book of the Year, The White Review for Wild Fires, 2022
• Kellogg Scholar, University of Oxford, 2022 – ‘24
• Writer-in-Residence & Visiting Fellow, University of Oxford, 2020
• Writer-in-Residence, Sangam House, India, 2020
• Artist-in-Residence, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, 2019-20
• Selected as Emerging Writer, Canada’s Festival of Literary Diversity, 2017

MEDIA

• Shortlist announced for 2023 Toronto Book Awards
• BBC: The Art of Memory
• Chatelaine: 16 Fall Books To Warm Up With (“Haunting”)
• Quill & Quire (“An excellent debut”)
• Otago Daily Times (“A tour de force”)
• The Kit: Canadian Authors Tell Us What to Read This Summer
• The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction
• Cloud Lake Literary
• Bocas Lit Fest
• Take a Break Magazine: Book Pick of the Week (April 28, 2022)
• CBC: 66 works of Canadian fiction to watch for in spring 2022
• CBC: 40 Canadian books coming out in May we can't wait to read
• Trinidad Express: Four Days to Change the World