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One of the nations leading book award carrying a CDN$50,000 prize, an exclusive black-tie gala, and guaranteed bestseller status for the winner, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, carries weight. It is certainly up there with the US Nationals, the Pulitzer and the Book Critics as far as quality is concerned- the Canadian equivalent of the Booker in fact.
The award was founded in 1994 by Montreal real estate Sbusinessman Jack Rabinovich as a tribute to his late wife, Doris Giller. The prize goes to the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English, and is announced in November.
Beginning in 2005, the award was co-sponsored by Scotiabank and renamed the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
2009 | 2008 Shortlist | 2008 Longlist | 2007 Winners & Lists | Past Winners 1994 to 2006
Winner: • Linden MacIntyre for his novel THE BISHOP’S MAN, published by Random House Canada
Giller Prize Winner- Nov 10 - Linden MacIntyre, a veteran broadcast journalist best known for his investigative reporting, won the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize Tuesday evening for his novel The Bishop’s Man. Full lists
“I had a speech prepared but it wasn’t a speech that I wasn’t prepared to give here,” he said upon taking the stage. “It was a speech that I planned to give at home.”
In the book, MacIntyre revisits his Cape Breton roots for the story of a middle-aged priest, Father Duncan MacAskill, who is also known by such nicknames as the Exorcist or the Purificator for his habit of making problematic priests disappear, a skill which makes him invaluable to the bishop. When he’s assigned to the small parish of Creignish, not far from where he grew up, Father Duncan must confront his own role in a young man’s suicide.
MacIntyre earns $50,000 for winning the Giller Prize.
Other Shortlisted
The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon
Fall by Colin McAdam
The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels
2008 Giller Scotiabank Giller Prize Winner
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Joseph Boyden for his novel Through Black Spruce, From internationally acclaimed author Joseph Boyden comes an astonishingly powerful novel of contemporary aboriginal life, full of the dangers and harsh beauty of both forest and city. When beautiful Suzanne Bird disappears, her sister Annie, a loner and hunter, is compelled to search for her, leaving behind their uncle Will, a man haunted by loss.While Annie travels from Toronto to New York, from modelling studios to A-list parties, Will encounters dire troubles at home. Both eventually come to painful discoveries about the inescapable ties of family. Through Black Spruce is an utterly unforgettable consideration of how we discover who we really are. |
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2008 Giller Other Shortlisted |
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Anthony De Sa for his collection of short stories Barnacle
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Marina Endicott for her novel Good to A Fault, published by In a novel reminiscent of the work of Penelope Lively, Ann Tyler, and Alice Munro, acclaimed author Marina Endicott gives us one of the most satisfying, most profound, and most memorable reads of the year. Absorbed in her own failings, Clara Purdy crashes her life into a sharp left turn, taking the young family in the other car along with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara—against all habit and comfort—moves the three children and their terrible grandmother into her own house. We know what is good, but we don't do it. In Good to a Fault, Clara decides to give it a try, and then has to cope with the consequences: exhaustion, fury, hilarity, and unexpected love. But she must question her own motives. Is she acting out of true goodness, or out of guilt? Most shamefully, has she taken over simply because she wants the baby for her own? What do we owe in this life, and what do we deserve? This compassionate, funny, and fiercely intelligent novel looks at life and death through grocery-store reading glasses: being good, being at fault, and finding some balance on the precipice. |
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Rawi Hage for his novel Cockroach, published by House of Anansi Press One of the most highly anticipated novels of the year, Cockroach is as urgent, unsettling, and brilliant as Rawi Hage's bestselling and critically acclaimed first book, De Niro's Game. The novel takes place during one month of a bitterly cold winter in Montreal's restless immigrant community, where a self-described "thief" has just tried but failed to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree in a local park. Rescued against his will, the narrator is obliged to attend sessions with a well-intentioned but naïve therapist. This sets the story in motion, leading us back to the narrator's violent childhood in a war-torn country, forward into his current life in the smoky émigré cafés where everyone has a tale, and out into the frozen night-time streets of Montreal, where the thief survives on the edge, imagining himself to be a cockroach invading the lives of the privileged, but willfully blind, citizens who surround him. Like De Niro's Game, Cockroach combines an uncompromising vision of humanity with razor-sharp portraits of society's outsiders, and a startling, poetic sensibility with bracing jolts of dark humour. |
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Mary Swan for her novel The Boys in the Tree Newly arrived to the countryside, William Heath, his wife, and two daughters appear the picture of a devoted family. But when accusations of embezzlement spur William to commit an unthinkable crime, those who witnessed this affectionate, attentive father go about his routine of work and family must reconcile action with character. A doctor who has cared for one daughter, encouraging her trust, examines the finer details of his brief interactions with William, searching for clues that might penetrate the mystery of his motivation. Meanwhile the other daughter's teacher grapples with guilt over a moment when fate wove her into a succession of events that will haunt her dreams. In beautifully crafted prose, Mary Swan examines the volatile collisions between our best intentions--how a passing stranger can leave an indelible mark on our lives even as the people we know most intimately become alienated by tides of self-preservation and regret. In her nuanced, evocative descriptions a locket contains immeasurable sorrow, trees provide sanctuary and refuge to lost souls, and grief clicks into place when a man cocks the cold steel barrel of a revolver. A supreme literary achievement, The Boys in the Trees offers a chilling story that swells with acutely observed emotion and humanity. |
published by Viking Canada
Love, published by 
s published by The longlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, is stocked with familiar faces. Among the 15 nominated authors are three previous winners (David Adams Richards, David Bergen, and Austin Clarke) and two previous nominees (Rawi Hage, Paul Quarrington), as well as other brand-name CanLit authors (Nino Ricci, Joseph Boyden).
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The full longlist:
The Lost Highway by David Adams Richards (Doubleday Canada)
The Retreat by David Bergen (McClelland & Stewart)
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden (Viking Canada)
More by Austin Clarke (Thomas Allen Publishers)
Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa (Doubleday Canada)
The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue (HarperCollins Canada)
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (Freehand Books)
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway (Knopf Canada)
Cockroach by Rawi Hage (House of Anansi Press)
Blackstrap Hawco by Kenneth J. Harvey (Random House Canada)
Red Dog, Red Dog by Patrick Lane (McClelland & Stewart)
The Withdrawal Method by Pasha Malla (House of Anansi Press)
The Ravine by Paul Quarrington (Random House Canada)
The Origin of Species by Nino Ricci (Doubleday Canada)
The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan (Henry Holt/H.B. Fenn and Company)
Elizabeth Hay (left)wins lucrative 2007 Giller prize for her novel:
Late Nights on Air
The Other Finalists Were........
Michael Ondaatje for his novel Divisadero McClelland & Stewart
Daniel Poliquin for his novel Secret Between Us, trans. Donald Winkler, Douglas & McIntyre
M.G. Vassanji for his novel The Assassin's Song, Doubleday Canada
Alissa York for her novel Effigy, Random House Canada
2007 Giller Longlist
David Chariandy | Soucouyant
Sharon English | Zero Gravity
Barbara Gowdy | Helpless
Elizabeth Hay | Late Nights on Air
Lawrence Hill | The Book of Negroes
Paulette Jiles | Stormy Weather
D.R. MacDonald | Lauchlin of the Bad Heart
Claire Mulligan | The Reckoning of Boston Jim
Mary Novik | Conceit
Michael Ondaatje | Divisadero
Daniel Poliquin | A Secret Between Us
M.G. Vassanji | The Assassin’s Song
Michael Winter | The Architects Are Here
Richard Wright | October
Alissa York | Effigy
Previous Giller Prize Winners 1994-2006
2006 WINNER
Vincent Lam for Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
Shortlist
Rawi Hage for De Niro’s Game
House of Anansi Press
Vincent Lam for Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
Doubleday Canada
Pascale Quiviger for The Perfect Circle, translation by Sheila Fischman
Cormorant Books
Gaétan Soucy for The Immaculate Conception, translation by Lazer Lederhendler
House of Anansi Press
Carol Windley for Home Schooling
Cormorant Books
Jury Panel
Adrienne Clarkson
Alice Munro
Michael Winter
2005 WINNER
David Bergen for The Time In Between
Shortlist
Joan Barfoot for Luck
Knopf Canada
David Bergen for The Time In Between
McClelland & Stewart
Camilla Gibb for Sweetness In The Belly
Doubleday Canada
Lisa Moore for Alligator
House of Anansi Press
Edeet Ravel for A Wall of Light
Random House Canada
Jury Panel
Warren Cariou
Elizabeth Hay
Richard B. Wrighti
2004 WINNER
Alice Munro for Runaway
Shortlist
Shauna Singh Baldwin for The Tiger Claw
Knopf Canada
Wayson Choy for All That Matters
Doubleday Canada
Pauline Holdstock for Beyond Measure
Cormorant Books
Alice Munro for Runaway
McClelland & Stewart / Douglas Gibson Books
Paul Quarrington for Galveston
Random House Canada
Miriam Toews for A Complicated Kindness
Knopf Canada
Jury Panel
Charlotte Gray
Alistair MacLeod
M.G. Vassanji
2003 WINNER
M.G. Vassanji for The In-Between World of Vikram Lall
Shortlist
Margaret Atwood for Oryx and Crake
McClelland & Stewart
John Bemrose for The Island Walkers
McClelland & Stewart
John Gould for Kilter: 55 Fictions
Turnstone Press
Ann-Marie MacDonald for The Way the Crow Flies
Knopf Canada
M.G. Vassanji for The In-Between World of Vikram Lall
Doubleday Canada
Jury Panel
Rosalie Silberman Abella
David Staines
Rudy Wieb
2002 WINNER
Austin Clarke for The Polished Hoe
Shortlist
Austin Clarke for The Polished Hoe
Thomas Allen Publishers
Bill Gaston for Mount Appetite
Raincoast Books
Wayne Johnston for The Navigator of New York
Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Lisa Moore for Open
House of Anansi Press
Carol Shields for Unless
Random House Canada
Jury Panel
Barbara Gowdy
Thomas King
Bill New
2001 Winner
Richard B. Wright for Clara Callan
Shortlist
Sandra Birdsell for The Russlander
McClelland & Stewart
Michael Crummey for River Thieves
Doubleday Canada
Michael Redhill for Martin Sloane
Doubleday Canada
Timothy Taylor for Stanley Park
Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Jane Urquhart for The Stone Carvers
McClelland & Stewart
Richard B. Wright for Clara Callan
HarperFlamingoCanada
Jury Panel
David Adams Richards
Joan Clark
Robert Fulford
2000 Winners
David Adams Richards for Mercy Among The Children
Michael Ondaatje for Anil's Ghost
Shortlist
Alan Cumyn for Burridge Unbound
McClelland & Stewart
David Adams Richards for Mercy Among The Children
Doubleday Canada
Elizabeth Hay for A Student of Weather
McClelland & Stewart
Michael Ondaatje for Anil's Ghost
McClelland & Stewart
Eden Robinson for Monkey Beach
Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Fred Stenson for The Trade
Douglas & McIntyre
Jury Panel
Margaret Atwood
Alistair MacLeod
Jane Urquhart
1999 Winner
Bonnie Burnard for A Good House
Shortlist
Bonnie Burnard for A Good House
HarperFlamingoCanada
Timothy Findley for Pilgrim
HarperFlamingoCanada
Anne Hébert for Am I Disturbing You
House of Anasi Press
Nancy Huston for The Mark of the Angel
McArthur & Company
David MacFarlane for Summer Gone
Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Jury Panel
Alberto Manguel
Judith Mappin
Nino Ricci
1998 Winner
Alice Munro for The Love of a Good Woman
Shortlist
Andre Alexis for Childhood
McClelland & Stewart
Gail Anderson-Dargatz for A Recipe for Bees
Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Barbara Gowdy for The White Bone
HarperFlamingoCanada
Greg Hollingshead for The Healer
HarperFlamingoCanada / A Phyllis Bruce Book
Wayne Johnston for The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Alice Munro for The Love of a Good Woman
McClelland & Stewart / A Douglas Gibson Book
Jury Panel
Margaret Atwood
Guy Vanderhaeghe
Peter Gzowski
1997 Winner
Mordecai Richler for Barney's Version
Shortlist
Michael Helm for The Projectionist
Douglas & McIntyre
Shani Mootoo for Cereus Blooms at Night
Press Gang Publishers
Nino Ricci for Where She Has Gone
McClelland & Stewart
Mordecai Richler for Barney's Version
Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Carol Shields for Larry's Party
Random House of Canada
Jury Panel
Bonnie Burnard
Mavis Gallant
Peter Gzowski
1996 Winner
Margaret Atwood for Alias Grace
Shortlist
Gail Anderson-Dargatz for The Cure for Death by Lightning
Knopf Canada
Margaret Atwood for Alias Grace
Doubleday Canada
Ann-Marie MacDonald for Fall on Your Knees
Simon & Schuster
Anne Michaels for Fugitive Pieces
Thorndike
Guy Vanderhaeghe for The Englishman's Boy
McClelland & Stewart
Jury
Bonnie Burnard
Carol Shields
David Staines
1995 Winner
Rohinton Mistry for A Fine Balance
Shortlist
Timothy Findley for The Piano Man's Daughter
HarperCollins
Barbara Gowdy for Mister Sandman
Somerville House
Leo McKay Jr. for Like This
House of Anansi
Rohinton Mistry for A Fine Balance
McClelland & Stewart
Richard B. Wright for The Age of Longing
HarperCollins
Jury
Mordecai Richler
David Staines
Jane Urquhart
1994 Winner
M.G. Vassanji for The Book of Secrets
Shortlist
Bonnie Burnard for Casino and Other Stories
HarperCollins
Eliza Clark for What You Need
Somerville House
Shyam Selvadurai for Funny Boy
McClelland & Stewart
M.G. Vassanji for The Book of Secrets
McClelland & Stewart
Steve Weiner for The Museum of Love
Penguin Books Canada
Jury
Alice Munro
Mordecai Richler
David Staines
