David Chariandy, Eden Robinson and Michael Redhill among authors longlisted for 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize
A mix of new and established writers comprise the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. The $100,000 prize recognizes the best in Canadian fiction.
The complete longlist is:
- Brother by David Chariandy
- Transit by Rachel Cusk
- The Bone Mother by David Demchuk
- We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night by Joel Thomas Hynes
- Minds of Winter by Ed O'Loughlin
- Boundary by Andrée A. Michaud, translated by Donald Winkler
- Tumbleweed by Josip Novakovich
- Next Year, For Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson
- Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill
- Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
- The Dark and Other Love Stories by Deborah Willis
- I Am a Truck by Michelle Winters
The 12 titles were chosen from the 112 books submitted by 73 different publisher imprints.
A handful of writers on the longlist have been previously recognized by the Giller Prize: Eden Robinson was shortlisted in 2000 for Monkey Beach, Michael Redhill was shortlisted in 2001 for Martin Sloane, Rachel Cusk was shortlisted in 2015 for Outline and David Chariandy was longlisted in 2007 for his novel Soucouyant.
This is the third time a work translated by Donald Winkler has been nominated. He also translated A Secret Between Us by Daniel Poliquin, which was shortlisted in 2007, and Arvida by Samuel Archibald, which was a finalist in 2015. Boundary by Andrée A. Michaud won the Governor General's Literary Award for French-language fiction in 2014.
Three debuts are on the longlist: The Bone Mother by David Demchuk is published by horror, science fiction and fantasy publisher ChiZine. Zoey Leigh Peterson, who was named a CBC Books Writer to Watch earlier this year, is nominated for her debut Next Year, For Sure. Rounding out the debuts on the longlist is I Am a Truck by Michelle Winters.
The 2017 shortlist will be revealed on Oct. 2, 2017, and the winner will be announced on Nov. 20, 2017 during a gala event in Toronto. The gala will be broadcast on CBC.
Jack Rabinovitch, who founded the Giller Prize in 1994, died earlier this year at the age of 87. Rabinovitch created the award to honour his wife, literary journalist Doris Giller who died in 1993, and to provide a prominent platform on which to recognize excellence in Canadian fiction.
The Giller Prize initially endowed a cash prize of $25,000, which was the largest purse for literature in the country. In 2005, the award teamed up with Scotiabank and the prize grew to $40,000 for the winner and $5,000 for each of the finalists. In 2014, the prize increased to $100,000 for the winner and $10,000 for the remaining finalists.
Past winners of the Giller Prize include Rohinton Mistry for A Fine Balance, Margaret Atwood for Alias Grace, Mordecai Richler for Barney's Version, Alice Munro for Runaway and André Alexis for Fifteen Dogs.
Last year's winner was Madeleine Thien for her novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing.
'The 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize will air on Mon. Nov. 20, on CBC at 8 p.m. (12 AT/12:30 NT), CBC Radio One at 8 p.m. (9 AT/9:30 NT) and will be livestreamed at CBCBooks.ca.
— With files from the Canadian Press