Michael Ondaatje, Douglas Coupland and other familiar Canadian authors have made the first cut for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

A long list of 146 writers are in the running, Eibhlin Byrne, Lord Mayor of Dublin, announced this week.

The 100,000-euro prize, worth approximately $150,000, is the world's most valuable for a single work of English-language fiction.

Ondaatje is nominated for his latest novel Divisadero, while Coupland is up for The Gum Thief. The 2007 winner of Canada's Giller Prize, Elizabeth Hay, for her book Late Nights on Air, also scored a nomination.

Other Canadian authors in the running include:

  • David Adams Richards, The Lost Highway
  • Michael Winter, The Architects Are Here
  • Richard B. Wright, October
  • David Chariandy, Soucouyant
  • Will Ferguson, Spanish Fly
  • Frances Itani, Remembering the Bones
  • Alissa York, Effigy
  • Andrew Wedderburn, The Milk Chicken Bomb
  • Gil Adamson, The Outlander
  • Beatrice MacNeil, Where White Horses Gallop
  • Liam Durcan, Garcia's Heart

Canadian Lawrence Hill is a semi-finalist for his novel The Book of Negroes — winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize and singled out by IMPAC organizers as one of this year's notable nominees.

The long list also features a host of internationally renowned writers, including:

  • Philip Roth, Exit Ghost
  • Ian Rankin, Exit Music
  • Sebastian Faulks, Engleby
  • Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns
  • Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach
  • Doris Lessing, The Cleft
  • Haruki Murakami, After Dark
  • Joyce Carol Oates, The Gravedigger's Daughter
  • Chuck Palahniuk, Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
  • Ann Patchett, Run
  • Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
  • Jonathan Coe, The Rain Before It Falls
  • Moshin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
  • Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader
  • Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union
  • Ken Follett, World Without End
  • Paul Verhaeghen, Omega Minor

A collection of libraries around the globe each nominate a book for the annual prize, which was first presented in 1996. Two Canadians have previously won the honour: Alistair MacLeod (in 2001 for No Great Mischief) and, most recently, Rawi Hage in June for his novel debut De Niro's Game.

Dublin city council, which established and administers the annual award, will announce a short list on April 2.

Canadian author and journalist Timothy Taylor is among this year's panel of five international jurors who will decide the winner, to be revealed in Dublin on June 11.