Scotiabank Giller Prize

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Scotiabank Giller Prize
Awarded for	English language Canadian fiction
Presented by	Scotiabank and Jack Rabinovitch
Country	Canada
First awarded	1994 - present
Official website

The Scotiabank Giller Prize is an award that goes to the author of a Canadian novel or short story fiction collection published in English (including translation) deemed by a jury to be the best published in the previous year.

This prize was established as the Giller Prize in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife Doris Giller, a former literary editor at the Toronto Star. The prize is given in November of each year and comes with a cash reward of $25,000.

On September 22, 2005, the Giller Prize established an endorsement deal with Scotiabank, a major Canadian bank. The prize package for the award was increased to $50,000, of which $40,000 will be presented to the winning author and $2,500 each to the other four shortlisted nominees. The award's official name was also changed at that time to the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

In 2006, the prize instituted a longlist for the first time, comprising no fewer than 10 and no more than 15 titles.

[edit] Controversy

Following Vincent Lam's win of the Giller Prize in 2006, Geist columnist Stephen Henighan criticized the Giller Prize for its apparent dependency for its shortlists and winners on books published by Bertelsmann AG-affiliated Canadian publishing house, all of which are based in Toronto. Arguing that the trend towards centralization of Canadian publishing in Toronto has led to a monopolistic control of the Giller Prize by Bertelsmann and its authors, Henighan wrote, "Year after year the vast majority of the books shortlisted for the Giller came from the triumvirate of publishers owned by the Bertelsmann Group: Knopf Canada, Doubleday Canada and Random House Canada. Like the three musketeers, this trio is in fact a quartet: Bertelsmann also owns 25 percent of McClelland & Stewart, and now manages M&S’s marketing."^[1] Henighan added that all of the Giller Prize winners from 1994 to 2004, with the exception of Mordecai Richler, lived within a two-hour drive of downtown Toronto.

The article raised debate within the media and in the wider public over the credibility of the Giller Prize.^[2][3][4][5]

[edit] Nominees and winners

The winners are in bold.

[edit] 1994

• M.G. Vassanji — The Book of Secrets
• Bonnie Burnard — Casino and Other Stories
• Eliza Clark — What You Need
• Shyam Selvadurai — Funny Boy
• Steve Weiner — The Museum of Love

Jury: Alice Munro, Mordecai Richler, David Staines

[edit] 1995

• Rohinton Mistry — A Fine Balance
• Timothy Findley — The Piano Man's Daughter
• Barbara Gowdy — Mister Sandman
• Leo McKay, Jr. — Like This
• Richard B. Wright — The Age of Longing

Jury: Mordecai Richler, David Staines, Jane Urquhart

[edit] 1996

• Margaret Atwood — Alias Grace
• Gail Anderson-Dargatz — The Cure for Death by Lightning
• Ann-Marie MacDonald — Fall on Your Knees
• Anne Michaels — Fugitive Pieces
• Guy Vanderhaeghe — The Englishman's Boy

Jury: Bonnie Burnard, Carol Shields, David Staines

[edit] 1997

• Mordecai Richler — Barney's Version
• Michael Helm — The Projectionist
• Shani Mootoo — Cereus Blooms at Night
• Nino Ricci — Where She Has Gone
• Carol Shields — Larry's Party

Jury: Bonnie Burnard, Mavis Gallant, Peter Gzowski

[edit] 1998

• Alice Munro — The Love of a Good Woman
• André Alexis — Childhood
• Gail Anderson-Dargatz — A Recipe for Bees
• Barbara Gowdy — The White Bone
• Greg Hollingshead — The Healer
• Wayne Johnston — The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

Jury: Margaret Atwood, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Peter Gzowski

[edit] 1999

• Bonnie Burnard — A Good House
• Timothy Findley — Pilgrim
• Anne Hébert — Am I Disturbing You?
• Nancy Huston — The Mark of the Angel
• David Macfarlane — Summer Gone

Jury: Alberto Manguel, Judith Mappin, Nino Ricci

[edit] 2000

In 2000, the award was presented to two writers. This is the only time the Giller has ever resulted in a tie, and Rabinovitch has advised subsequent Giller juries that they must choose a single winner.

• Michael Ondaatje — Anil's Ghost
• David Adams Richards — Mercy Among the Children
• Alan Cumyn — Burridge Unbound
• Elizabeth Hay — A Student of Weather
• Eden Robinson — Monkey Beach
• Fred Stenson — The Trade

Jury: Margaret Atwood, Alistair MacLeod, Jane Urquhart

[edit] 2001

• Richard B. Wright — Clara Callan
• Sandra Birdsell — The Russlander
• Michael Crummey — River Thieves
• Michael Redhill — Martin Sloane
• Timothy Taylor — Stanley Park
• Jane Urquhart — The Stone Carvers

Jury: David Adams Richards, Joan Clark, Robert Fulford

[edit] 2002

• Austin Clarke — The Polished Hoe
• Bill Gaston — Mount Appetite
• Wayne Johnston — The Navigator of New York
• Lisa Moore — Open
• Carol Shields — Unless

Jury: Barbara Gowdy, Thomas King, W. H. New

[edit] 2003

M. G. Vassanji, who won the first-ever Giller Prize in 1994, became the award's first repeat winner in 2003.

• M.G. Vassanji — The In-Between World of Vikram Lall
• Margaret Atwood — Oryx and Crake
• John Bemrose — The Island Walkers
• John Gould — Kilter: 55 Fictions
• Ann-Marie MacDonald — The Way the Crow Flies

Jury: Rosalie Abella, David Staines, Rudy Wiebe

[edit] 2004

• Alice Munro — Runaway
• Shauna Singh Baldwin — The Tiger Claw
• Wayson Choy — All That Matters
• Pauline Holdstock — Beyond Measure
• Paul Quarrington — Galveston
• Miriam Toews — A Complicated Kindness

Jury: M. G. Vassanji, Alistair MacLeod, Charlotte Gray.

[edit] 2005

• David Bergen — The Time In Between
• Joan Barfoot — Luck
• Camilla Gibb — Sweetness in the Belly
• Lisa Moore — Alligator
• Edeet Ravel — A Wall of Light

Jury: Warren Cariou, Elizabeth Hay, Richard B. Wright.

[edit] 2006

• Vincent Lam — Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures
• Rawi Hage — De Niro's Game
• Pascale Quiviger — The Perfect Circle (translation by Sheila Fischman)
• Gaétan Soucy — The Immaculate Conception (translation by Lazer Lederhendler)
• Carol Windley — Home Schooling

Jury: Adrienne Clarkson, Alice Munro, Michael Winter.

[edit] Longlist nominees

In 2006, the Giller Prize publicized its preliminary longlist for the first time.

• David Adams Richards — The Friends of Meager Fortune
• Caroline Adderson — Pleased to Meet You
• Todd Babiak — The Garneau Block
• Randy Boyagoda — Governor of the Northern Province
• Douglas Coupland — jPod
• Alan Cumyn — The Famished Lover
• Rawi Hage — De Niro's Game
• Kenneth J. Harvey — Inside
• Wayne Johnston — The Custodian of Paradise
• Vincent Lam — Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures
• Annette Lapointe — Stolen
• Pascale Quiviger — The Perfect Circle
• Gaétan Soucy — The Immaculate Conception
• Russell Wangersky — The Hour of Bad Decisions
• Carol Windley — Home Schooling

[edit] 2007

• Elizabeth Hay — Late Nights on Air
• Michael Ondaatje — Divisadero
• Daniel Poliquin — A Secret Between Us (trans. Donald Winkler)
• M. G. Vassanji — The Assassin's Song
• Alissa York — Effigy

Jury: David Bergen, Camilla Gibb, Lorna Goodison.

[edit] Longlist nominees

• David Chariandy — Soucouyant
• Sharon English — Zero Gravity
• Barbara Gowdy — Helpless
• Elizabeth Hay — Late Nights on Air
• Lawrence Hill — The Book of Negroes
• Paulette Jiles — Stormy Weather
• D. R. MacDonald — Lauchlin of the Bad Heart
• Claire Mulligan — The Reckoning of Boston Jim
• Mary Novik — Conceit
• Michael Ondaatje — Divisadero
• Daniel Poliquin — A Secret Between Us (trans. Donald Winkler)
• M. G. Vassanji — The Assassin's Song
• Michael Winter — The Architects Are Here
• Richard B. Wright — October
• Alissa York — Effigy

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Scotiabank Giller Prize official site
• Most honored books of the Giller Prize shortlists
• Giller Prize at The Canadian Encyclopedia
• The Great Unknowns: CBC Arts Online analyzes the literary dash for the Giller cash

v • d • e Scotiabank Giller Prize laureates M.G. Vassanji (1994) · Rohinton Mistry (1995) · Margaret Atwood (1996) · Mordecai Richler (1997) · Alice Munro (1998) · Bonnie Burnard (1999) · Michael Ondaatje / David Adams Richards (2000) · Richard B. Wright (2001) · Austin Clarke (2002) · M.G. Vassanji (2003) · Alice Munro (2004) · David Bergen (2005) · Vincent Lam (2006) · Elizabeth Hay (2007)