Esi Edugyan wins 2nd Scotiabank Giller Prize for Washington Black

EsiEdugyan, author of the novel Washington Black,has won this year's$100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the 25th anniversary of Canada's richest literary honour. It is the second Giller win for the Victoria, B.C.-based writer.

"I wasn't expecting to win," she said as she got on stage to accept the award. "So I didn't prepare a speech."

Published by Patrick Crean Editions, the novel follows the saga of an 11-year-old boy who escapes slavery ona Barbados sugar plantation with the help of the owner's kinder brother. It is also a finalist for the 2018 Man Booker Prize and the Writers' Trust fiction award.

Edugyanalso won the prize in 2011 for her novel Half-Blood Blues. Both times, she beat out Patrick deWitt.

"I just have to say that in a climate where so many forms of truth telling are under siege," Edugyan said in her short acceptance speech, "this feels like a really wonderful and important celebration of words."

The National's Rosemary Barton speaks with Esi Edugyan following her win.

Rosemary Barton speaks with Esi Edugyan

6 years ago

Duration 2:11

Esi Edugyan tells The Nationals Rosemary Barton how winning the Giller Prize will allow her to keep writing.

This year's jurycomprising journalistKamalAl-Solaylee, Toronto International Film Festival executive Maxine Bailey and writersHeather O'Neill,PhilipHensherand John Freemancalled the winning book"a supremely engrossing novel about friendship and love and the way identity is sometimes a far more vital act of imagination than the age in which one lives."

The four remaining finalists, whoreceive $10,000 each, are:

• PatrickdeWittfor his novelFrench Exit.
• Thea Limfor her novelAn Ocean of Minutes.
• ricDupontfor his novelSongs for the Cold of Heart.
• SheilaHetifor her novelMotherhood.

The Giller was established in 1994 by businessman Jack Rabinovitch in memory of his wife, literary journalist Doris Giller. Past winners have included Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Alice Munro, Andr Alexis and Michael Redhill.

Rabinovitch, whodied in August 2017, is set to be honoured with a namesake literary salon at the Toronto Reference Library.