If you follow the shadow jury at Kevin from Canada, you may already know that we chose two shadow winners this year – The Innocents by Michael Crummey and Reproduction by Ian Williams.
I am happy to say that Ian Williams took home the Giller Prize this year for Reproduction!
Congratulations to all the finalists – the longlisted and shortlisted. And congratulations to the authors of all the great Canadian books that came out this year! (I often wonder which books almost made it to the longlist…)
Here are the links to my reviews of the 2019 shortlisted books.
Here is the link to the broadcast of the gala, hosted by Jann Arden.
And, of course, you can visit the Scotiabank Giller Prize site for information on the finalists, the longlisted books and authors, the jurors, as well as past nominees, winners, and jurors.
Thanks to my fellow jury members, Marcie and Alison for reading with me!
And speaking of prize winners…
There are a couple of other major Canadian literary prizes for fiction going on around the same time as the Gillers that I like to follow – the Governor General’s Literary Awards and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
Finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction
Eye by Marianne Micros (Guernica Editions)
Five Wives by Joan Thomas (HarperCollins)
Late Breaking by K.D. Miller (Biblioasis) – My review
The Innocents by Michael Crummey (Doubleday Canada)
The Student by Cary Fagan (Freehand Books)
The winner!
Finalists for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
Days by Moonlight by André Alexis (Coach House Books) – My review
Season of Fury and Wonder by Sharon Butala (Coteau Books)
The Innocents by Michael Crummey (Doubleday Canada)
Shut Up You’re Pretty by Téa Mutonji (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin (House of Anansi Press) – My review
The winner!
The Innocents by Michael Crummey is the only book on all three prize lists. As Stephanie Domet said as defender of Crummey’s book at the Giller Light Bash in Halifax – “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.”
Have you or do you plan on reading any of these books? What do you think of prize lists? I like what Marcie had to say about it in a recent post called On Longlists and Linked Story Collections (which features K.D. Miller’s short stories): “What I really love about prizelists are the longlists. Sometimes they introduce me to the work of an author I haven’t heard of. Sometimes they nudge a book up the stack, one I was interested in reading, but there are hundreds of others I’m interested in as well, so a prize-listing adds a note of urgency and I’ll read sooner. Sometimes they remind me of an author that I have been meaning to try for ages, but I’ve not been sure where to begin.”
Consumed by Ink 
I already have Dual Citizens on my list and I’m pretty sure Reproduction will be publihsed over her now that it’s won the Giller. Maybe the Crummey and Alexis will be, too. Fingers crossed!
Fingers crossed for all of them! I’ll be interested to find out which ones make it over.
I’ll keep you posted
Naomi, I’m so glad you do this and for your blog. A treasure of Canadian literature.
Thanks, Valorie! 🙂
You did a pretty good job then, and I guess the judges did too, since you so closely agreed.
I’m definitely going to have to check out Reproduction. I like looking at awards long lists and harbor fantasies of reading everything on one but it’s not happened yet!
Fantasizing about all the reading I’m going to do is one of my favourite things! 🙂
Did you watch the broadcast? What did you think of Jann Arden as host? i loved her, I think she’s hilarious 🙂 Probably my favourite host so far, and obviously, way better than Jian Ghomeshi (LOL)
Yes, I watched it. I thought she was great, too. I’ve never seen her host anything before – I didn’t know she was so funny!
I want to watch her show but… I don’t have tv, or the time LOL
Ha! I didn’t even know she had a show!
yes! I think it’s called Jann. It’s literately just about her and her life (but it’s not reality tv)
The longlists often prove more rewarding than just reading the winners…..
I agree!
But I’m always too curious *not* to read the winner!
There are some really good books on those shortlists too (I wish THEY would release their longlists as well). I know you’ve been reading them too. Here are a couple of my faves.
Cary Fagan’s The Student is a short but surprisingly powerful read, which presents a young woman in 1957, who yearns to continue studying English at UofT but is discouraged (she “should” get married), and then revisits her in 2005 (after she has made many life-altering decisions).
Also, for the other award, I read a few of the short stories in Sharon’s Butala’s collection, all of which are inspired by her favourite (often American authored contemporary classic) stories and all of which feature older women as their protagonists. Pretty great.
(PS Thanks for linking to my thoughts on longlists. I think prizelists get a bad rap when people get too focussed on the winner and forget that there are many other conversations around the books that readers can have. Or they can create their own longlists. Whatever. Read and discuss, right? But it’s so much easier to simply complain. Sigh.)
And people seem to like to complain…
I had the Butala stories in my hand, but they were an ILL and I didn’t get to them in time. It will have to be a priority for the new year!