Canadian author Sarah Bernstein is shown in a handout photo. Bernstein's "Study for Obedience," is on the short list of the Scotiabank Giller Prize. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Alice Meikle **MANDATORY CREDIT**
TORONTO – The denizens and dignitaries of CanLit will gather tonight to crown the winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize – and celebrate the 30th anniversary of the prestigious award.
One of five writers will receive the $100,000 prize this evening during a televised gala at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto.
The finalists include Sarah Bernstein for “Study for Obedience,” Eleanor Catton for “Birnam Wood” and Kevin Chong for “The Double Life of Benson Yu.”
Rounding out the short list are “The Islands: Stories” by Dionne Irving and “All the Colour in the World” by CS Richardson.
Funnyman Rick Mercer has been tapped to host the ceremony, which will air on CBC TV and CBC Gem at 9 p.m. ET.
The award was first handed out in 1994, a year after the death of its namesake, literary journalist Doris Giller.
Her husband, Jack Rabinovitch, founded the prize to further Giller’s legacy. Like his wife, he sought to uplift Canadian literature with a heady dose of glitz and glamour.
“Jack wanted to make it big and sparkly,” said Elana Rabinovitch, his daughter, who serves as executive director of the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
“To some extent, it still kind of is. That accrues to the benefit of the authors. That’s what we want to give them, is more attention and time and exposure and the limelight.”
In the three decades since its founding, the Giller has become something of a CanLit kingmaker.
Winners invariably see a bump in sales, as do those who make the short and long lists, Rabinovitch said. The phenomenon has become known as the “Giller Effect.”
The list of past winners is venerable, and includes such names as Margaret Atwood, who won in 1996 for “Alias Grace,” Alice Munro, who took home the prize first in 1998 and again in 2004, Michael Ondaatje, who was recognized for “Anil’s Ghost” in 2000 and Esi Edugyan, who received the award in both 2011 and 2018.
The award is such a fixture of the CanLit canon that in 2014, Carleton University introduced a course all about it.
Rosemarie Hoey designed and taught the seminar starting in 2014, inviting students to consider both the award-winning books and the prize’s role in Canadian publishing.
“It’s big business,” said Hoey, who’s now retired. “I’m sorry if that rattles the chains of some of the purists, but my God, writers have a tough enough job, often working full-time jobs teaching or shovelling French fries.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2023.
