Giller Prize nod for KPU Surrey instructor\u2019s novel about child soldiers in Iran-Iraq war<\/p>\n
Published 7:30 pm Wednesday, October 14, 2026<\/p>\n
When Nazanine Hozar was six years old, she watched the Iran-Iraq war unfold on the news. She saw propaganda videos of child soldiers, only a year or two her senior, joining the army and marching into battles.<\/p>\n
Such images did not make sense in the young mind of the future author. \u201cI couldn\u2019t reconcile with the fact that children would be fighting, firing weapons and killing,\u201d she said in a phone call.<\/p>\n
The experience formed in Hozar a lingering urge to explore the lives of those young boys and find the answer to why they became entangled in the adults\u2019 conflict, an idea that her younger self could not fathom.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always stuck with me throughout my life\u2026 and that\u2019s how The Small Ones came about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The novel follows a group of children who voluntarily join the 1980s Iran-Iraq war to \u201cplease their father and become heroes.\u201d The search for glory would soon crumble as those children witness firsthand the destructive nature of war. They then embark on a journey to find safety and freedom.<\/p>\n
The Small Ones, Hozar\u2019s sophomore novel published Sept. 29, was quickly shortlisted for the 2026 Giller Prize on Oct. 5 along with Tara Gereaux\u2019s Wild People Quiet, Michelle Good\u2019s Eliza Sunshine, Nicholas Herring\u2019s Your Breath in Charcoal and Patmeena Sabit, Good People. <\/p>\n
The Giller Prize, Canada\u2019s most lucrative literary award, recognizes \u201cexcellence in Canadian fiction in long format or short stories.\u201d Notable previous winners are Margaret Atwood (1996) and Nobel prize winner Alice Munro (1998).<\/p>\n
\u201cRestrained in its telling yet expansive in its meaning,\u201d Giller prize jury citation notes, \u201cThe Small Ones transforms the experiences of children caught in conflict into a deeply affecting examination of sacrifice, power, survival and the enduring humanity of those whom society deems expendable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hozar, a creative writing instructor at KPU Surrey, attempts to explore the costly consequence of adult ambition on their young kins through the power dynamic between fatherly figures and sons in the story. The author showcases how some men are willing to \u201csacrifice and subject their children to unimaginable things to achieve their own needs and desires.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c(When) powerful men are trying to attain more power, the people who suffer the most are children,\u201d Hozar said.<\/p>\n
In The Small Ones, children are \u201ctrapped innocently\u201d in their old men\u2019s warfare, similar to how Hozar describes the current situation in Iran where Iranian people are caught in the \u201ccrossfire\u201d between Western powers and an oppressive domestic regime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people are desperate to get out of this predicament and attain freedom,\u201d she says. \u201cYet from every angle, they\u2019re being brutalized and bombarded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Tehran, Hozar has kept a close bond with Iranian culture since moving to Canada in childhood.<\/p>\n
Storytelling is a lifelong passion that Hozar nurtures in various formats including theatre, playwriting and screenwriting. She finds writing novels come most naturally, and names Toni Morrison and James Baldwin as favourite authors and inspirations.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike the nature of a fish to swim, it\u2019s the nature of a fiction writer to create stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hozar\u2019s debut novel, Aria, also well-received by critics and the public, was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction prize. Atwood called the book \u201ca Doctor Zhivago of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Aria and The Small Ones recurrently explore the harrowing impact of war on children through their own lens.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think compassion and empathy are the only way forward,\u201d Hozar said, commenting on the rising divisiveness in ideologies, religions and belief systems that is driving humanity to wars and destruction.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as we\u2019re able to see human beings for their humanity and their right to live how they want without restricting the rights of others, that is the goal of all human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giller Prize nod for KPU Surrey instructor\u2019s novel about child soldiers in Iran-Iraq war Published 7:30 pm Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-933678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}