Of the longlist, the jury writes:
“We’re celebrating writers brave enough to change public discourse, generous with their empathy, offering deeply immersive experiences. Some delve into the sack of memory and retrieve the wisdom we need for our times, others turn the unfamiliar beloved. All are literary achievements we feel will touch and even transform you.”
From CBC Books:
Twelve Canadian writers are contending for what has undoubtedly become the richest fiction prize in Canada – the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
In a major announcement from Montreal Tuesday morning, prize founder Jack Rabinovitch said that, beginning this year, the cash awards would double. The winner will now receive $100,000, up from $50,000, and the remaining finalists will receive $10,000, up from $5,000.
“Canadian storytellers deserve this recognition,” Rabinovitch said in a statement.
He established the prize in 1994 (then worth $25,000 for the winner) in honour of his late wife, literary editor Doris Giller.
“I can hardly imagine what Doris would say,” he added.
The 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlisted books are:
- Waiting for the Man by Arjun Basu (ECW Press)
- The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis (HarperCollins Canada)
- American Innovations by Rivka Galchen (HarperCollins Canada)
- Tell by Frances Itani (HarperCollins Canada)
- Watch How We Walk by Jennifer LoveGrove (ECW Press)
- Us Conductors by Sean Michaels (Random House Canada)
- Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab by Shani Mootoo (Doubleday Canada)
- The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O’Neill (HarperCollins Canada) ·
- Paradise and Elsewhere by Kathy Page (John Metcalf Books/Biblioasis)
- My October by Claire Holden Rothman (Penguin Canada)
- All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews (Knopf Canada)
- The Ever After of Ashwin Rao by Padma Viswanathan (Random House Canada)
You can learn more about the longlisted books at CBC Books’ special Scotiabank Giller Prize page.
The jury described the longlisted writers as being “brave enough to change public discourse” and said they have contributed “literary achievements we feel will touch and even transform you.”
CBC News in Montreal was at the longlist reveal. You can watch a report in the video clip below.
Via the link: http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/09/scotiabank-giller-prize-2014.html