Nicholas Herring: The PEI Fisherman on the 2026 Giller Shortlist

Not sponsored. Nobody paid to be featured and there are no affiliate links in this article. We share these links to support Canadian authors, creators, businesses and causes.

Nicholas Herring spends his working days on the water and on job sites around Murray Harbour, Prince Edward Island, where he works as a fisherman and a carpenter. In between, he writes novels that keep catching the attention of Canada’s biggest literary juries. His second book, Your Breath in Charcoal, published by Goose Lane Editions in September 2026, is one of five finalists for the 2026 Giller Prize. The winner will be named on November 16.

A writer with his hands in the work

Herring did not take the usual road to the literary spotlight. He studied English literature at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario, graduating with an honours degree in 2009, and later completed a master’s degree in creative writing at the University of Toronto. Then he went home to the Island and to work that keeps him outdoors. His short writing has appeared in literary magazines including The Puritan and The Fiddlehead.

That mix of physical work and close reading shows on the page. His books are full of working people, Island speech and humour, and they take the inner lives of ordinary characters seriously.

Your Breath in Charcoal

The new novel follows Knickle, a young Islander described by his publisher as having “no friends, direction, or purpose in his life.” When he agrees to drive to northern New Brunswick to collect an acquaintance’s brother from a mental health hospital, the trip turns into something bigger. The two young men decide, on impulse, to keep heading west to the big city in Upper Canada. There, for the first time, Knickle finds love, hope and real loss.

Goose Lane calls it a funny and sensitive working-class story full of literary and pop culture references. The Giller jury described it as “an uproarious, undeniably Maritime tale” and praised its distinctive voice. The book runs 328 pages.

From Some Hellish to the Giller shortlist

Herring first drew national notice with his debut novel, Some Hellish, also published by Goose Lane. In 2022 it won the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, one of the country’s top awards for fiction. For a writer from a small fishing community, publishing with an Atlantic Canadian press, it was a striking win.

Four years later, Your Breath in Charcoal made the 2026 Giller shortlist, announced on October 5. A jury of independent booksellers chose the five finalists from more than 140 books. The Giller winner receives $100,000, and each of the other finalists receives $10,000. Whatever happens on November 16, Herring’s first two novels have now been recognized by two of Canada’s leading fiction prizes.

Why he inspires

Herring’s story is a reminder that literature does not only come from big cities or full-time writers. He has built a serious writing life alongside fishing and carpentry, in a small Island community, and he writes about people who rarely get to be the heroes of prize-winning books. His work shows that a story set among working people in the Maritimes can speak to readers right across the country.

Where to learn more

You can find Your Breath in Charcoal at independent bookstores and on the Goose Lane Editions website. If you are near Waterloo, Ontario, St. Jerome’s University is hosting Herring at its Reading Series on Thursday, November 19, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. Watch for the Giller Prize announcement on November 16.

Questions and answers