Gearing up for the Giller Prize

Awarded each year since 1994, the Giller Prize was founded by Jack Rabinovitch in memory of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller.

The prize awards $50,000 to the best Canadian work of fiction in English (or translated into English), and is considered Canada’s most prestigious literary honour. Writers such as Margaret Atwood, Vincent Lam, Rohinton Mistry, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Esi Edugyan and Mordecai Richler have all won in previous years.

This year’s shortlist has been revealed, and it includes:

• Will Ferguson for his dark thriller 419. Watch Ferguson talk about 419:

• Kim Thuy for her semi-autobiographical novel, Ru. Watch Thuy discuss writing Ru:

• Alix Ohlin’s tale of four characters connected in different ways, Inside. In this clip, Ohlin talks about her novel:

• Nancy Richler’s mid-century period novel, The Imposter Bride.

• And finally, journalist Russell Wangersky’s collection of short stories, Whirl Away.

This year’s three person jury includes Canadian publisher and writer Anna Porter, Irish author Roddy Doyle and American satirist Gary Shteyngart. They whittled down the long list from 13 titles which were revealed in early September. A total of 142 books were submitted for consideration this year.

The 2012 Gala will be held in Toronto on October 30th. It will be broadcast on CBC.

Sources: Giller Prize, CBC

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