Red Dog, Red Dog by B.C. poet Patrick Lane is one of six Canadian books shortlisted for Amazon.ca's First Novel Award.

It is the first novel for the veteran poet, who won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poems: New & Selected in 1979 and is a frequent contributor to CBC.

Lane's novel is about two young men growing up in rural B.C. in the 1950s.

The Toss of a Lemon, the story of a young Tamil widow and her family struggling with the strictures of the caste system in contemporary India is also nominated.

It was written by Padma Viswanathan, an Edmonton-raised playwright and short story writer who now lives in Arkansas, and is based on the life of her grandmother.

The $7,500 award, which has launched the careers of writers such as Joy Kogawa and Joseph Boyden, is in its 33rd year.

Other nominees:

• The Boys in the Trees, by Mary Swan of Ontario, a story of a family's disintegration in 19th century Canada.
• Chase & Haven by Michael Blouin of Oxford Mills, Ont., about a brother and sister bond that outlives a dysfunctional family.
• Stunt, by Claudia Dey, a Toronto playwright, whose first novel is about a child who sets off to find her missing father.
• Reading by Lightning by Joan Thomas of Winnipeg, about a young woman determined to escape life in the drought-ravaged Prairies.

Reading by Lightning won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for best first novel from Canada and the Caribbean.

The entries were selected by Aritha van Herk, the Canadian author of Restlessness.

The winner is to be announced in Toronto in September.