Anne Michaels, Conor Kerr among finalists for 2024 Giller Prize | CBC Books - Action News
Home WebMail Thursday, November 14, 2024, 04:32 PM | Calgary | 6.6°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Books

Anne Michaels, Conor Kerr among finalists for 2024 Giller Prize

ric Chacour, Anne Fleming and Deepa Rajagopalan also on the Giller Prize shortlist. The winner will be announced on Nov. 18, 2024.

ric Chacour, Anne Fleming and Deepa Rajagopalan also on this year's shortlist

Five book covers on a red background with colourful squiggles in two of the corners.
These are the five books on the 2024 Giller Prize shortlist. (Graphic by CBC Books)

ric Chacour, Anne Fleming, Conor Kerr, Anne Michaels and Deepa Rajagopalanare the five writers shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.

The $100,000 award annually recognizes the best in Canadian fiction.

The 2024short list features four novels and one short story collection, covering a wide range of material, from SouthAsian diaspora experiences toqueer historical romance to contemporaryMtisstories.

It includes two writers with debut books:ChacourforWhat I Know About You,translated byPablo Strauss, andRajagopalan forPeacocks of Instagram.

Allfinalists but Michaelsare making their first appearance on the Giller shortlist.

Michaels, recognizedthis year forHeld, was shortlisted for the 1996 Giller Prize forFugitive Piecesand in 2009 forThe Winter Vault.Kerr, who is shortlisted forPrairie Edge, was previouslylonglisted in 2022 for his novelAvenue of Champions.

Kerr is also one of the 2025 judges for theCBC Short Story Prize.

The shortlisted books are available in accessible format through the National Network for Equitable Library Services and the Centre for Equitable Library Access.

The shortlistwas chosen from more than 100 books by a jurychaired by author and producer Noah Richler and included writer and professor Kevin Chong and singer-songwriter Molly Johnson. When thejury was announced in January, it also included international jurors Dinaw Mengestu and Megha Majumdar, who have sincestepped down.

"Writers of fiction imagine, as a matter of course, what it means to be another: to be marginalized, to be suppressed, to be guilty to be joyful! or simply not seen," said the jury in a press statement."Their words sing lives, extol our virtues, nurse our injuries, expose our faultsand compel us to consider worlds about which we are curious and unknowing or had no idea existed."

Pushback from some authors

In July, more than 20 authors pulled their books from consideration for the prize, which is sponsored by Scotiabank, toprotest the bank's investment in Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence contractor. As of the short list announcement, 45 authors had signed aletterdemanding the Giller Foundation pressure Scotiabank to fully divest from Elbit Systems.

Scotiabankhad reduceditsholdings inElbitSystems by more than two-thirds as of Aug. 14,according tothe Canadian Press.

The Giller organizers have removed Scotiabank's name from the prize. It still remains the prize's lead sponsor.

"Scotiabank continues to be the lead sponsor of the Giller Prize and we remain grateful for their support," said Giller Prizeexecutivedirector Elana Rabinovitch,in an email to CBC Books when the long list was announced. "The decision to remove their name was made so that the focus would be on these exceptional authors and their achievements,and to give the stage to Canada's best storytellers of today and tomorrow."

"Ultimately, more than ever, we want to ensure the prize stays true to its purpose: to celebrate the best in Canadian fiction and to give the stage to Canada's best storytellers. For us, that means ensuring the focus remains solely on the Prize and the art itself."

Scotiabank confirmed they are continuing to sponsor the Giller Foundation and the 2024 Giller Prize via email.

The 2024 winner will be announced on Nov. 18, 2024.

The 2024 Giller Prizeaward ceremony will be broadcast on Monday, Nov.18, at 9 p.m. ET (11:30 p.m. AT, 12 a.m. NT)on CBC TV and CBC Gem, with a livestream also available at 9 p.m. ET on CBC's YouTube channel. It will also bebroadcaston CBC Radio One and CBC Listen.

Last year's winner wasSarah Bernstein,for her novelStudy for Obedience. Bernsteinsigned thelettercalling for the prize to cut ties with Scotiabank.Omar El Akkad, who won the prize in 2021,also signed it.

Other past Giller Prize winners includeSuzette MayrforThe Sleeping Car Porter;Souvankham ThammavongsaforHow to Pronounce Knife;Esi EdugyanforWashington Black;Michael RedhillforBellevue Square;Margaret AtwoodforAlias Grace;Mordecai RichlerforBarney's Version;Alice MunroforRunaway;Andr AlexisforFifteen Dogs;andMadeleine ThienforDo Not Say We Have Nothing.

Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch founded the prize in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller, in 1994. Rabinovitchdied in 2017 at the age of 87.

You can learn more about the fiveshortlistedbooksbelow.

What I Know About Youbyric Chacour, translated byPablo Strauss

A man with short dark hair and a beard looks into the camera. A book cover shows the chin of statue and a city from high up.
What I Know About You is a novel by ric Chacour, left, translated by Pablo Strauss. (Justine Latour, Coach House Books)

InWhat I Know About You,Tarek is on the right path: he'll be a doctor like his father, marry and have children. But when he falls for his patient's son, Ali, his life is turned upside down as he realizes his sexuality against a backdrop of political turmoil in 1960s Cairo. In the 2000s, Tarek is now a doctor in Montreal. When someone begins to write to him and about him, the past that he's been trying to forget comes back to haunt him.

Chacour is a Montreal-based writer who was born to Egyptian parents and grew up between France and Quebec. In addition to writing, he works in the financial sector.What I Know About Youis his first book and was a bestseller in its French edition, winning many awards, including the Prix Femina.

Pablo Strauss has translated 12 works of fiction, several graphic novels and one screenplay. He was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for translation forThe Country Will Bring Us No Peace,SynapsesandThe Longest Year.His translation ofLe plongeurby Stephane Larue(The Dishwasherin English)won the 2020 Amazon First Novel Award. He lives in Quebec City.

Curiositiesby Anne Fleming

A book cover of a person's face partially obscured by colourful flowers. A white woman with short hair and glasses wearing a button-down and glasses with her hand on her face.
Curiosities is a novel by Anne Fleming. (Knopf Canada, Martin Dee)

Curiositiescentres around an amateur historian who discovers an obscure memoir from 1600s England that explores a love that could not be explained in those times. Weaving together different fictional accounts, the novel tells thelife stories of Joan and Thomasina, the only two survivors of a village ravaged by the plague, and how they eventually find each other again.Thomasina, now Tom, navigatesthe world in boy's clothes and as a male,but faces a strugglewhen discovered, naked, by a member of the clergy.

Fleming is an author based in Victoria.Her books includePool-Hopping and Other Stories, which wasshortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. She has also writtena middle-grade novel,The Goat, which was a Junior Library Guild and White Ravens selection.

Prairie Edgeby Conor Kerr

A book cover featuring a bison on a yellow background next to a black and white photo of a bearded man in sunglasses and a cowboy hat.
Prairie Edge is a novel by Conor Kerr. (Strange Light, Jordon Hon)

InPrairie Edge,Isidore(Ezzy)Desjarlais and Grey Ginther live together in Grey's uncle's trailer, passing their time with cribbage and cheap beer. Grey iscynical of what she feels is a lazy and performative activist culture, while Grey is simply devoted to his distant cousin. So when Greyconcocts a scheme to set a herd of bison loose in downtown Edmonton, Ezzyis along for the ride one that has devastating, fatal consequences.

Kerr is a Mtis/Ukrainian writer who has lived in a number of prairie towns and cities, including Saskatoon. He now lives in Edmonton. A2022 CBC Books writer to watch, his previous works include the novelsOld GodsandAvenue of Champions, whichwaslonglisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize, andwon the ReLit award the same year. Kerr currently teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta.

LISTEN | Conor Kerrdiscusses his novelPrairie EdgeonThe Next Chapter:
Mtis-Ukrainian author Conor Kerr's latest novel takes inspiration from a real-life news story. In Prairie Edge, two distant Mtis cousins release bison into Edmonton's urban green spaces in an act of reclamation.

Heldby Anne Michaels

A composite image of a book cover featuring a room wallpapered with an outdoor scenery and an open white door beside a black and white portrait of a woman with curly black hair and a black leather jacket looking over her shoulder into the camera.
Held is a novel by Anne Michaels. (McClelland & Stewart, Marzena Pogorzaly)

Weaving in historical figures and events, the mysterious, generations-spanning novelHeldbegins on a First World War battlefield near the River Aisne in 1917, where John lies in the falling snow, unable to move or feel his legs. When he returns hometo North Yorkshire with life-changing injuries, he reopens his photography business in an effort to move on with his life. The past proves harder to escape than hethoughtand John is haunted by ghosts that begin to surface in his photos with messages he struggles to decipher.

Heldis alsoshortlistedfor the 2024 Booker Prize.

Michaelsis the winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Trillium Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has been shortlisted for theGovernor General's Literary Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Giller Prize.

LISTEN | Anne MichaelsonQ:
Anne Michaels is an award-winning Canadian poet and novelist who just published her long-awaited third novel, Held. The story spans 115 years and deals in themes familiar to her work: history, grief and the power of love. Anne tells Tom why it took nearly 15 years to write the novel, why shes so interested in writing about war, and why she chooses to live an intensely private life.

Peacocks of InstagrambyDeepa Rajagopalan

An Indian woman wearing a red top with long dark hair smiles at the camera next to a colourful book cover featuring a hand holding up a mirror with several eyes in the reflection.
Peacocks of Instagram is a short story collection by Deepa Rajagopalan. (House of Anansi Press, Ema Suvajac)

The collection of stories inPeacocks of Instagramprovidesa tapestry of the Indian diaspora. Tales of revenge, love, desire and family explore the intense ramifications of privilege, or lack thereof. Coffee shop and hotel housekeeping employees, engineers and children show us all of themselves, flaws and everything.

Rajagopalan was the 2021 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award winner. Born to Indian parents in Saudi Arabia, she has lived across India, the United Statesand Canada. Her previous writing has appeared in publications such as theBristol Short Story Prize Anthology, the New Quarterly, Room and Arc. Rajagopalannow lives and works in Toronto.

LISTEN | Deepa Rajagopalandiscusses her short story collection onThe Next Chapter:
Ontario-based author Deepa Rajagopalans debut short story collection features rule-breaking characters, savvy social media sellers and peafowl.

Add some good to your morning and evening.

Sign up for our newsletter. Well send you book recommendations, CanLit news, the best author interviews on CBC and more.

...

The next issue of CBC Books newsletter will soon be in your inbox.

Discover all CBC newsletters in theSubscription Centre.opens new window

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service apply.