What is the Giller Prize?
Angela Mulholland, CTV News
Though it is only in its 12th year, the Scotiabank Giller Prize has become arguably Canada’s most prestigious literary award, and certainly its richest.
The awards show is an eagerly awaited event each fall in the literary community, with many libraries across the country holding "Guess the Giller'' contests and publishers toasting the winners while anticipating the boost in book sales.
“The Giller is the most prestigious of all the fiction awards,” says Random House of Canada executive vice-president Brad Martin.
Bruce Walsh, the director of Marketing & Publicity at McClelland & Stewart, agrees.
Jack Rabinovitch explains why he founded the Scotiabank Giller Prize
“While the Governor General Award is the big one for poetry or non-fiction, the Giller is the prize for fiction,” Walsh says.
The award was founded in 1994 by businessman Jack Rabinovitch to honour the memory of his late wife Doris Giller, a journalist and book reviewer who died of lung cancer in April, 1993. He was assisted by several friends - most notably the late Mordecai Richler, author Alice Munro, and academic David Staines - in shaping the Prize.
Walsh says that right from the beginning, the Giller has meant glamour and star power. That’s partly because the juries have always included CanLit celebrities, such as Mordecai Richler, Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood and Peter Gzowski. An award from writers such as those, with their expertise, clout and prestige, is considered a huge honour for an author.
The Giller is also now the richest prize in Canada, thanks to a generous investment by Scotiabank, which doubled the prize money to $50,000, including $40,000 to the winner, and $2,500 to the others on the short list.
The prize is awarded each year to the author of the best Canadian novel or story collection published in English. Past winners have included Michael Ondaatje for Anil's Ghost, Austin Clarke for The Polished Hoe, and most recently, Alice Munro for Runaway.
Just being shortlisted for the Giller is an achievement; plenty of little known writers have been catapulted into the national spotlight with a Giller nod, including Michael Crummey, Michael Redhill and Timothy Taylor.
A nomination alone means your book will likely become a bestseller, though Martin admits it all depends on the book.
“To win, might mean 10,000 more books sold -- which is huge in Canada,” notes Walsh.
Many Canadian booklovers look to the Giller list as a way to decide what to buy for Christmas presents – a fact not missed by publishers. A Giller nomination often means a new printing run or at least a sticker on the cover announcing the nomination. The book is often moved to the front of the store along with its fellow nominees and suddenly an author will find him or herself back on a promotional tour.
“It’s huge just to be shortlisted,” says Walsh.
To be eligible for the Giller, a book must be a first-edition full length novel or short story collection, written by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada. Books must be published in Canada in English between mid-October of the year before and mid-October of the current year. No self-published books shall be eligible.
This year’s jury -- authors Elizabeth Hay of Ottawa, Warren Cariou of Winnipeg and past Giller winner Richard B. Wright of St. Catharines, Ont. As in years previous, they considered 94 works before narrowing the field to a shortlist of five.
