Everything you need to know about the 5 Canadian finalists for $60K Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
The winner will be announced on Nov. 2, 2022
There are five writers up for the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Prize for Fiction, one of Canada's top prizes for novels and short story collections. The $60,000 prize will be awarded on Wednesday, Nov. 2. It is one of the biggest fiction prizes in Canada.
The remaining finalists will each take home $5,000.
This year's five finalists are selected by the jury from 132 titles submitted by 70 publishing imprints. The jury is composed of Canadian fiction writers David Bergen, Norma Dunning and Andrew Forbes.
The fiction prize was recently renamed in honour of Canadian literary icons Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson, two of the five co-founders of Writers' Trust of Canada.
The Writers' Trust of Canada is an organization that supports Canadian writers through literary awards, fellowships, financial grants, mentorships and more.
It also gives out seven prizes in recognition of the year's best in fiction, nonfiction and short story, as well as mid-career and lifetime achievement awards.
The annual fiction prize has been awarded since 1997. Last year's winner was Strangers by Katherine Vermette.
Other past winners include Austin Clarke, Alice Munro, Lawrence Hill, Miriam Toews, Emma Donoghue, André Alexis, David Chariandy and Gil Adamson.
Here's everything you need to know about the 2022 finalists.
Querelle of Roberval by Kevin Lambert, translated by Donald Winkler
Querelle of Roberval is a novel set in Quebec involving a young person named Querelle who moves to the northern lumber town of Roberval and sets off a chain of events involving sex, passion and violence. Roberval is in the middle of a millworkers' strike and Querelle's carnal involvement with some of the young men in the small town fuels tensions among all involved.
"All of my books start from a political question. Querelle of Roberval is set in Quebec. It is about the landscapes and the geographies where I grew up. It's a place where many people work for these large multinational companies that exploit the local resources. It gives a weird atmosphere and structure because you never see the faceless bosses of these companies but everybody works for them," Lambert told CBC Books in an interview.
In this story, there are no gods, but their fight against capitalism is as desperate as the fight of all classic tragic characters.- Kevin Lambert
"I was interested in figuring out how one might fight against these structures — who is the enemy? The characters in the book go on strike to improve their working conditions. They think that their enemy is with their immediate boss. But they soon discover that it's much broader than this — the enemy is our social structures.
"That's why it's written as tragedy. Because in tragedy, characters fight against the gods. In this story, there are no gods, but their fight against capitalism is as desperate as the fight of all classic tragic characters."
Lambert is a writer from Quebec. You Will Love What You Have Killed is his first novel, and the first to be translated into English.
Querelle of Roberval was translated into English by Donald Winkler. Winkler is a filmmaker and translator from Montreal. Two books he has translated have been finalists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize: A Secret Between Us by Daniel Poliquin in 2007 and Arvida by Samuel Archibald in 2015.
Querelle. The name is circulating, is making the rounds, is being passed back and forth under one's breath in an aisle at Rossy, is being barked out audibly between two hot chickens at the Ski-Doo rest stop, no one's ever seen the boy but the picture painted is that of a character out of one of those sadistic, frightening stories our cousins tell in summer under the tent. Querelle is Roberval's bogeyman, people place bets on his age—sometimes 25, sometimes 50—on the colour of his skin and hair, brown, green, black, on the shape of his mouth and eyes. Like that evil creature, he spirits away adolescents, corrupts them, carves them up, devours them; like the fabled monster, no one knows where he comes from: from Montreal, from the Mafia, or from Saudi Arabia, but one thing is certain: he lives in a cave, often roams the beaches, and works side by side with your godchild's girlfriend. People talk about this troublemaker, legends abound as to his combats and his special friendships.
Atwood Gibson Prize jury citation: "Kevin Lambert's fearless novel is a profane, funny, bleak, touching, playful and outrageous satire of sexual politics, labour and capitalism. In ecstatic and cutting prose, it gleefully illuminates both the broad socio-political tensions of life in a Quebec company town and the intimate details of sex, lust, loneliness and gay relationships in such a place. Like its central character, the book is brash, beautiful, quasi-mythic and tragic. Most improbably, for all its daring and provocation, Querelle of Roberval is lyrically, even tenderly written."
Kevin Lambert's fearless novel is a profane, funny, bleak, touching, playful, and outrageous satire of sexual politics, labour, and capitalism.- Atwood Gibson Prize jury
LISTEN | Kevin Lambert on translating Querelle of Roberval into English:
Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi
Her First Palestinian is a collection of short stories revolving around the Palestinian immigrant experience in Canada. The stories explore themes of identity, loss, power and belonging as they look at the diverse and layered experiences of the Palestinian diaspora. The titular story in Her First Palestinian was shortlisted for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize.
"I always knew I wanted to write something that had to do with my Palestinian identity and featured Palestinian characters. On the Canadian literary landscape, there's not a lot of that. It was important for me to feature those kinds of characters," Saeed Teebi told CBC Books in an interview.
I always knew I wanted to write something that had to do with my Palestinian identity and featured Palestinian characters.- Saeed Teebi
"I happen to think that the stories are pretty universally applicable to other peoples in diaspora or other immigrants. But to engage those kinds of characters was important to me."
Teebi is a writer and lawyer based in Toronto. He was born to Palestinian parents in Kuwait and, after some time in the U.S., has lived in Canada since 1993. His writing frequently engages the immigrant experience and his Palestinian background. Her First Palestinian is his first book.
Not long after the first joys of finding each other had settled, Nadia asked me if I would teach her about my country. It was inevitable. The walls of my Toronto apartment were conspicuously covered with Palestinian artefacts, and donation brochures featuring Gazan children were often laying about.
I said of course I would, although at the time I was quite busy finishing up my residency and trying to land a permanent position. She was busy too, she was a lawyer.
Our initial discussions were informal, and took place between embraces. After she quickly devoured the basics (the British Mandate, the nakba, 1967, etc.) and asked for more, I realized I had to create a sort of ad hoc curriculum for Nadia's education. So I did. I summarized all the major historical milestones, and supplemented with discussions on current sociopolitical issues. Most of these things I knew by heart, like any good diasporic offspring. For those that I didn't, I asked my parents, or consulted a text I trusted. I took an even-handed approach, because someone as intelligent as Nadia would've detected anything less.
Atwood Gibson Prize jury citation: "Sometimes a writer comes along whose stories are not only complex and full and exquisitely written, but whose vision and political voice feels necessary. In Her First Palestinian, Saeed Teebi coaxes the reader in a certain direction, and then flips the narrative so that now we are complicit, and we see our own guilt in the great divide that exists between the privileged and the stranger. Teebi does this with subtle humour and a wry tone. He does not preach, yet his writing expresses a certain fervour that is essential. He is a vital voice."
Sometimes a writer comes along whose stories are not only complex and full and exquisitely written, but whose vision and political voice feels necessary.- Atwood Gibson Prize jury
LISTEN | Saeed Teebi talks to Tom Power about his literary success:
Some Hellish by Nicholas Herring
Some Hellish is about a lobster fisher named Herring who is facing the existential dread of what he feels is a boring, mundane life. That is, until one December day when he decides to cut a hole in the living room floor and alter the course of his life as he knows it. Through a myriad of absurd and confronting experiences, including his wife and children leaving him, Tibetan monks rescuing him after a near-death experience, Herring is forced to reckon with himself, his fear and what it means to be alive.
"Lobster fishing, on P.E.I., anyway, is this incredible industry. It's a ton of work. Your days are long, you're up early. It's very dangerous. It's kind of a beautiful industry, in that, given the danger of the job, it's kind of a commonplace thing that men and women are willing to go out on the water and risk their lives so that other people can eat lobster," Nicholas Herring told The Next Chapter in an interview.
I wanted to write something that was entertaining; something that was beautiful and truthful and difficult.- Nicholas Herring
"I wanted to write something that was entertaining; something that was beautiful and truthful and difficult. I really wanted to write something that was kind of like life — as I see it at this moment in time."
Herring is a writer and carpenter from Murray Harbour, P.E.I. Some Hellish is his debut novel. His writing has also appeared in the Puritan and the Fiddlehead.
Herring felt anxious about getting back out onto the waters. His temper grew short. He had no desire to be snappy, but he felt as tight as a hamstring. He made sure the girls had applied their sunscreen and put their life jackets on. They got the canoe into the waters and loaded her up, Gerry in the bow, the girls in the middle, and Herring at the stern. The sun was out and the sky was a light blue, a sheet of periwinkle. The water was dark and had a bit of chop to it. And jellyfish everywhere. Herring told the girls to watch the direction of the grasses at the bottom of the channel. From these you could tell if the tide was falling or rising.
Atwood Gibson Prize jury citation: "What Cormac McCarthy did for cowboys and horses, Nicholas Herring does for fishermen and boats in his novel Some Hellish. With a deep knowledge of the Island and a passion for the language of work, Herring's voice is droll and philosophical, ribald and poetic. The age-old story of humans versus nature finds a fresh cadence as Herring trawls the seas for body and soul. There is a dark beauty within this story, and it will make the reader's heart sing."
There is a dark beauty within this story, and it will make the reader's heart sing.- Atwood Gibson Prize jury
LISTEN | Nicholas Herring reflects on representing P.E.I. in fiction:
Ezra's Ghosts by Darcy Tamayose
Ezra's Ghosts is a collection of imaginative stories set in a quiet prairie town called Ezra. Linked by place and themes of grief, language and culture, each story features a different character dealing with fantastical circumstances: one character is trapped in town following her death, forced to watch her family and killer continue on without her while another story sees the oldest man in town sprout wings.
"There's an element of magic realism, or urban fantastical, in each of the four stories. But I would define it as more of a genre variable collection," Tamayose told CBC Books in an interview.
There's an element of magic realism, or urban fantastical, in each of the four stories.- Darcy Tamayose
"It's a collection of four stories. I wanted to explore and experiment with storytelling pace, density and the nonlinear flow. With multiple pieces, multiple moving parts and being immersed in a liberal education system, I had a lot of things to draw upon. There's a lot of themes — that's probably why I like the short story format."
Tamayose is a writer and graphic designer from southern Alberta. Her work includes the novel Odori, which received the Canada-Japan Literary Award, and the YA book Katie Be Quiet. Tamayose lives in Lethbridge, Alta.
The rain came down like a cloud of a million slow spears. Needles cast long, fine filaments angling from the sky. Yes, it rains in this dimension just as it does down there. In fact, there isn't as much difference as one might think. One thing is apparent, however — time is different. Rain falls slowly, and with that one can observe the way the light embodies each strand, the way it impacts a puddle, quakes and concentrically ripples. The action catches the light differently with each ripple. Time copes with colour differently, too, as amber and indigoes, for example, present in an unpredictable manner due to the nonlinear aspect. Colours? They linger and bleed. Time seems to slow the inhale of beauty — or what I perceive to be beauty. The stretch of sunlit rain, for instance, seems to hold in its seemingly small vessels stories that you have never heard, particle voyages that are multi-directional, carrying a cargo of riches you can't even imagine; and then when they fall, they touch my skin, my eyelids, my tongue.
Atwood Gibson Prize jury citation: "Darcy Tamayose writes from the other side. Each story in Ezra's Ghosts is unique and allows us to see life from beyond, exploring the aspects of grief from those who have moved on. Each character is placed inside our hearts, connecting us to the spirit of their loved one. She writes on 'the significance of the sacred,' treading on the possibility of even more life and purpose in the afterlife. Tamayose is a gifted writer whose every sentence is written with care and precision."
Tamayose is a gifted writer whose every sentence is written with care and precision.- Atwood Gibson Prize jury
Manam by Rima Elkouri, translated by Phyllis Aronoff & Howard Scott
Manam follows main character Léa as, fuelled by her grandmother's refusal to divulge an important family story, she travels to her ancestral village, Manam, in Turkey to uncover her family's past. Helped by a Kurdish filmmaker and guide, Léa learns that during the Armenian genocide, nearly the entire population of the village were killed or flex to exile in Syria, which, for Léa, begs the question: How did her grandmother and her family survive?
"It's not so much a book about the Armenian genocide. It's more of a book that explores silence, courage, memory, transmission, mourning, pain and hope through the eyes of women. We all have stories of family that we question ourselves about. What is my legacy, exactly? What should I do with the story?" Elkouri told CBC Books in an interview.
We all have stories of family that we question ourselves about. What is my legacy, exactly? What should I do with the story?- Rima Elkouri
"Grandmothers' stories are not honoured in the way they should be. The stories about women in the Armenian genocide, or just women in general, are forgotten stories. We don't look at the way women participate [in war and genocide] and the way they see things differently. It's a different way of telling our collective stories."
Rima Elkouri is a journalist and columnist from Montreal, where she currently writes for La Presse. Manam is her debut novel.
Manam was translated into English by the Montreal translation team of Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott. They have also translated Edem Awumey's novel Descent Into Night, which won the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for translation.
Let's begin at the end.
Teta died today. Teta passed away in this country that had become hers, while the Syria she loved so much was dying too. She died at peace, after a long, beautiful life. People go into exile to live in peace, of course. But isn't it also a little to die in peace?
I still see her lighting a cigarette with a slow, graceful movement. I hear her repeating the words of Khalil Gibran. "The more deeply sorrow hollows out your being, the more joy you can contain." For her, joy was only sadness without a mask.
She lived 107 years, straddling two worlds. Half of her life in the East, the other half in the West. A life like a bridge between two shores, above raging rapids. As a child, she saw what no child should see. She could have spent her whole life crying over it. She could have nursed an undying hatred. But she clung to silence and to hope. As if she had a deep conviction that memories we don't speak of won't kill us.
Atwood Gibson Prize jury citation: "Manam sings us through the fictional life of its protagonist's grandmother. Elkouri's writing is lyrical and soothing as she resurrects the hard early life of her own grandmother who survived the decimation of Armenia in 1915. She approaches the reality of war with words that commemorate the life of her Teta. Elkouri writes, 'what is worse than death is forgetting.' Her work fulfils the curiosity we carry of our ancestors and is a reminder to all of us to honour their lives and, more importantly, to never forget them."
Her work fulfills the curiosity we carry of our ancestors and is a reminder to all of us to honour their lives and, more importantly, to never forget them.- Atwood Gibson Prize jury
LISTEN | Rima Elkouri reflects on sharing her grandmother's story:
