Scotiabank Giller Prize to feature 2022 longlisted writers in monthly book club
The 2023 edition of the Giller Book Club will run from January until early July
The Scotiabank Giller Prize is back with its monthly book club series.
This year's edition of the Giller Book Club features the authors of the 2022 longlist in conversation with notable writers, critics, past jury members and academics. The interviews will be streamed live and run from January until early July. There will be 14 interviews with approximately two book clubs per month.
You can find out more about the conversations and register at the Scotiabank Giller Prize website. Check out the full schedule below, including details on each book.
The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr
On Jan. 11, Suzette Mayr discussed The Sleeping Car Porter with Donna Bailey Nurse. The Sleeping Car Porter won the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
The Sleeping Car Porter is about Baxter, a closeted queer Black man who works as a sleeping car porter on a train in 1929. He smiles and tries to be invisible to the passengers, but what he wants is to save up and go to dentistry school. On one particular trip out west, the train is stalled and Baxter finds a postcard of two gay men. The postcard reawakens memories and desires and ultimately puts his job in jeopardy.
Suzette Mayr is a poet and novelist based in Calgary. She is the author of the novels Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall, Monoceros, Moon Honey, The Widows and Venous Hum. Monoceros won the ReLit Award, the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize and made the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist.
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama
On Jan. 24, Tsering Yangzom Lama discussed We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies with Waubgeshig Rice.
Her debut novel, We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies, published this spring, recounts a Tibetan family's struggle to create new lives of dignity, love and hope after China's invasion of Tibet in the 1950s. Readers follow sisters Lhamo and Tenkyi on a multi-decade journey through exile, from a harrowing trek across the Himalayas to a refugee camp on the border of Nepal.
Decades later, the sisters are separated. Tenyki lives in Toronto with Lhamo's daughter Dolma, who has to decide if it's worth risking her dreams to help her community.
Lama is a Tibetan Canadian author based in Vancouver. Born and raised in Nepal, she's also lived in Toronto and New York City.
Lama holds a BA in Creative Writing and International Relations from the University of British Columbia and a MFA from Columbia University. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Globe and Mail, the Malahat Review and Grain. She has been a resident at Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center and more. Lama is currently a storytelling advisor with Greenpeace International.
Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage
On Feb. 7, Rawi Hage discussed Stray Dogs with Kaie Kellough.
His book, Stray Dogs, is a collection of short stories with characters who shift allegiances, countries and beliefs as they remake their identities.
Hage is the Lebanese-born, Montreal-based author of acclaimed novels De Niro's Game, which won the International Dublin Literary Award in 2008; Cockroach, which received the Hugh MacLennan Prize for fiction and was defended by Samantha Bee on Canada Reads in 2014 and Beirut Hellfire Society.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
On Feb. 21, Kim Fu discussed Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century with Casey Plett.
In this collection of stories, Kim Fu turns the familiar on its head to weave tales of new worlds where strange happenings, like a girl growing wings on her legs or toy boxes that control the passage of time, are the ordinary trappings of everyday life. The stories deal with themes of death, technological consequence, guilt and sexuality and unmask the contradictions within humanity.
Fu is a Washington-based, Canadian-born fiction writer and poet. She has published two other works of fiction, For Today I Am a Boy and The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore, and a book of poetry, How Festive the Ambulance. Fu was named a writer to watch by CBC Books in 2022. Along with Canadian authors Norma Dunning and Steven Price, Fu is on the jury for the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize.
If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga
On March 7, Noor Naga discussed her book If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English with Scott Spencer.
Set shortly after the events of the Arab Spring, If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English is a novel that traces the relationship between two people — a wealthy Egyptian American woman and an unemployed man from the village of Shobrakheit — who meet in a cafe in Cairo. The pair fall in love but must contend with issues of identity, class and violence as they try to build a lasting relationship.
Naga is an Egyptian Canadian writer. She won the 2017 Bronwen Wallace Award for her poem The Mistress and the Ping. She also won the Disquiet Fiction Prize in 2019. In 2020, Noor was named a writer to watch by CBC Books in 2020. Her first book, the poetry collection Washes, Prays, was published in 2020 and was named among the best poetry of the year by CBC Books. Noor is an instructor at the American University in Cairo.
In the City of Pigs by André Forget
On March 22, André Forget will discuss In the City of Pigs with Michael Crummey.
In the City of Pigs centres around a failed musician desperate to make something of himself in a new city. Trying his hand at journalism, Forget's character soon finds himself exposed to the sordid underbelly of high-powered elites where, navigating his own impulses and material desires, he must decide the kind of person he wants to be.
Raised in Mount Forest, Ont. and now living in Sheffield, U.K., Forget is the former editor-in-chief of The Puritan, and his work has appeared in a variety of magazines and newspapers in Canada and the United States.
Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
On April 3, Dimitri Nasrallah will discuss Hotline with Omar El Akkad.
In Nasrallah's novel Hotline, it's 1986 and Muna Heddad has left behind a civil war in Lebanon and is living in Montreal. The only work she can find is as a hotline operator at a weight-loss centre where she fields calls from people responding to ads in magazines or on TV. These strangers have so much to say about their challenges, from marriages gone bad to personal inadequacies. Although her life in Canada is filled with invisible barriers, Muna is privy to her clients' deepest secrets.
Dimitri Nasrallah is a writer from Lebanon. He is the author of novels The Bleeds; Niko, which won the 2011 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction; and Blackbodying, winner of Quebec's McAuslan First Book Prize. Nasrallah lives in Montreal and is the fiction editor at Esplanade Books.
Pure Colour by Sheila Heti
On April 11, Sheila Heti will discuss Pure Colour with Rachel Rose.
Pure Colour follows a woman named Mira, who leaves home for school and meets a person named Annie. Annie has this power over Mira and opens her chest like a portal. Many years later when Mira is older, her father dies and his spirit passes into her. Together, they become a leaf on a tree. But when photosynthesis gets boring, Mira must choose whether or not to return to Annie and the human world she has left behind.
Pure Colour is a funny exploration of the wonderful and terrible aspects of being alive.
Heti is a Canadian playwright and author whose work has been translated in over a dozen languages. Her novel Motherhood was on the shortlist for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize. She is also the author of the novels Ticknor and How Should a Person Be? and the self-help book The Chairs Are Where the People Go.
All the Quiet Places by Brian Thomas Isaac
On May 2, Brian Thomas Isaac will discuss All the Quiet Places with Gil Adamson.
In All the Quiet Places, it's 1956 and young Eddie Toma lives on the far edge of the Okanagan Indian Reserve with his mother and little brother. In the summer, he tags along with his mother, her friends and his nephew to farm in Washington state. After tragedy strikes, Eddie comes home grief-stricken, confused and lonely. As he grows up, his life is governed by the decisions of the adults around him. And every time things start to look up, circumstances beyond his control crash down around him — and the effects of guilt, grief and despair keep piling up, threatening everything Eddie has ever known or loved.
Isaac was born on the Okanagan Indian Reserve in B.C. He's worked in oil fields, as a bricklayer and had a short career riding bulls in local rodeos. As a lover of sports, he has coached minor hockey. All the Quiet Places is his first book and was on the Canada Reads 2022 longlist.
Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
On May 16, Antoine Wilson will discuss Mouth to Mouth with Katie Kitamura.
Mouth to Mouth is a novel that explores themes of money, fate and morality through the eyes of an art dealer who confesses the real story behind his success. In a first-class lounge at JFK airport, the book's narrator listens as a former classmate he vaguely remembers shares the story of his adult life — a life that forever changed course when he saved a man from drowning.
Wilson is a Canadian American novelist, editor and short story writer born in Montreal and based in California. Wilson's work has appeared in The Paris Review, StoryQuarterly, Best New American Voices, and the Los Angeles Times. His novels include Panorama City and The Interloper. Mouth to Mouth, his third novel, was on the former U.S. president Barack Obama's summer reading list of his favourite books of 2022.
Lucien and Olivia by André Narbonne
On May 30, André Narbonne will discuss Lucien and Olivia with Eric Dupont.
Lucien and Olivia is a comic novel that explores the often transactional nature of life and how humans interact with each other. In 1980s Halifax, a time before mobile devices and social media, a marine engineer working on a Canadian tanker and a university student working on her philosophy degree randomly connect and are both repulsed yet drawn to each other's differences. The couple try to navigate love and a healthy relationship — despite how much the odds are stacked up against them.
Narbonne is a Canadian professor and author. His short stories have won the Atlantic Writing Competition, the FreeFall Prose Contest and the David Adams Richards Prize. He teaches English and creative writing at the University of Windsor and is the fiction editor of the Windsor Review. Narbonne's poetry collection, You Were Here, was published in 2016. His short story collection, Twelve Miles to Midnight, was a 2017 finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Lucien & Olivia is his debut novel.
What We Both Know by Fawn Parker
Fawn Parker will discuss What We Both Know with Cedar Bowers. This event has been postponed until further notice.
In What We Both Know, protagonist Hillary Greene's father, a famous author, is losing his memory in his old age — and with it, his ability to write. As an aspiring author and his full-time caretaker, Hillary agrees to ghostwrite his memoir — but delving into his past leads to unearthing buried memories of the abuse of her late sister Pauline, who took her own life not long ago.
Based in Toronto and Fredericton, Parker is also the author of the novels Set-Point and Dumb Show. Her story Feed Machine was longlisted for the 2020 McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. She holds an MA in creative writing from the University of Toronto and is a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of New Brunswick. Parker was named a writer to watch by CBC Books in 2022.
Avenue of Champions by Conor Kerr
On June 5, Conor Kerr will discuss Avenue of Champions with Joshua Whitehead.
Set in Edmonton, Avenue of Champions explores the lives of Indigenous youth and the colonial contexts in which they grow up, including the violence, racism and trauma they endure and the cultural lessons, land rights, elder relationships and language revitalization they fight for. Avenue of Champions won the 2022 ReLit Award and was a finalist for the 2022 Amazon Canada First Novel Award.
Kerr is a Métis and Ukrainian educator, writer, poet and harvester. He is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta and is descended from the Gladue, Ginther and Quinn families from the Lac Ste. Anne and Fort Des Prairies Métis communities and the Papaschase Cree Nation. His poem Prairie Ritual was on the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize longlist.
A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt
On July 4, Billy-Ray Belcourt will discuss A Minor Chorus with Waubgeshig Rice.
A Minor Chorus follows an unnamed narrator who abandons his thesis and goes back to his hometown, where he has a series of intimate encounters bringing the modern queer and Indigenous experience into focus.
Belcourt is a writer and academic from Driftpile Cree Nation in Alberta. In 2016, he became the first Indigenous person from Canada to be a Rhodes Scholar. Belcourt won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize for This Wound is a World. The debut collection also won the 2018 Indigenous Voices Award for most significant work of poetry in English and was a finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry.
His second book, NDN Coping Mechanisms, uses poetry, prose and textual art to explore how Indigenous and queer communities are left out of mainstream media. It was on the Canada Reads 2020 longlist and was shortlisted for the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards.
Corrections
- The date of the book club event for Hotline has changed from April 4 to April 3. The post has been updated to reflect that change.Mar 14, 2023 8:55 PM ET
