2009 Giller Prize Longlist
The 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury announced its longlist on Monday, September 21. This is the 16th year of the prize and the first year that the prize has featured two non-Canadians as jurors. The jury panel - American novelist and short story writer Russell Banks, UK author and journalist Victoria Glendinning, and Canadian writer and professor, Alistair MacLeod – chose 12 titles out of nearly 100 books.
The jury read solidly for almost six months as submission after submission made its way to the UK (Victoria), upstate New York (Russell) and Nova Scotia (Alistair). Conference calls were held, books were read and re-read, e-mails flew back and forth. All in all, as Victoria Glendinning said, a life-enhancing experience.
And the longlist is:
for her novel The Incident Report, published by Pedlar Press
Of the longlist, the jury writes:
"Though they vary stylistically and structurally and connect with and extend a range of novelistic traditions, every one of these twelve books is an excellent, beautifully crafted work of fiction with a cast of vividly realized, memorable characters. We were particularly impressed by the authors' broad and deep visions of society and their profound affection for humanity and the natural world. Equally impressive is their imaginative engagement with history, from that of ancient Greece to yesterday's breaking news, and even in a few cases, to the history of a dystopian future."
The shortlisted finalists will be announced at a news conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto on Tuesday, October 6th. CTV is the proud broadcast partner of The Scotiabank Giller Prize. Broadcast details will be disclosed at a later date.
The Scotiabank Giller Prize awards $50,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English and $5,000 to each of the finalists. The Scotiabank Giller Prize is named in honour of the late literary journalist Doris Giller and was founded in 1994 by her husband Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch.
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© 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize |
