There were surprises aplenty at yesterday's announcement in Toronto of the short list for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize for excellence in Canadian English-language literature.

For the first time in the Giller's 13-year history, the five candidates for the country's top literary prize—the winner gets $40,000, the runners-up $2,500 each—are largely unknowns (rookies in two cases) published mainly by small or medium-sized presses. Gasps were heard as the nominees were announced...

...In an interview after the announcement ceremony, [Adrienne] Clarkson said the jurors "had no agenda" except that of "excellence and literary value -- what was the author trying to do and did he or she succeed." She said she "wasn't conscious at all" of the fact that, in four of five cases, the books were from small publishers that traditionally print no more than 2,000 copies of a work of fiction at any one time. "All the books were beautiful in their presentation, professional in design," she said. "There was nothing that looked like it was run off a Gestetner."

Read more at the Globe & Mail.

Source: James Adams, The Globe & Mail

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dsendecki said:

With a jury that changes every year, the Giller Prize is never predictable. As it is usually awarded to someone doing something new and exciting, I always look forward to their shortlist?going to try and read through it in the next few weeks! Haven't even started. :-

October 10, 2006

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