Scotiabank
Giller Prize: 2006 Shortlist
Toronto,
ON - On Oct. 3, 2006, in a morning press conference that drew over 100
media and members of the publishing industry, The
Scotiabank Giller Prize announced its 2006 shortlist.
TDR sent the publisher's
father and retired professional photographer, Bill Bryson, into the
fray.
"How'd you like to go
take a photo of Alice Munro?" his son asked.
"Good idea,"
Bryson Sr. said.
Then he asked his son,
"Who else is going to be there?"
To which Michael replied:
"The rest of the jury: Michael Winter and somebody
else."
Later, after the event,
Bryson Sr. gleefully called his son: "That person you couldn't
remember ... was Adrienne
Clarkson!"
In
the end, Ms. Munro was unable to attend.
What follows is a
compilation of his photographic report and the Giller's press release.
The five finalists were
chosen from 101 books submitted for consideration by 36 publishing
houses from every region of the country.
They are:
Rawi Hage for
his novel De Niro's Game, published by House of Anansi Press
Vincent Lam for
his short story collection, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures,
published by Doubleday Canada
Pascale Quiviger
for her novel The Perfect Circle, translation by Sheila
Fischman, Published by Cormorant Books
Gaetan Soucy
for his novel The Immaculate Conception, translation by Lazer
Lederhendler, published by House of Anansi Press
Carol Windley
for her short story collection, Home Schooling, published by
Cormorant Books
*
ABOUT THE 2006 SCOTIABANK
GILLER PRIZE FINALISTS
Rawi
Hage - DE NIRO'S GAME
Rawi Hage's first novel
tells the tale of two young men trying to survive in the carnage of
civil war in Beirut, Lebanon. Best friends since childhood, Bassam and
George are faced with two choices for survival; to leave their home and
take a chance in a foreign city, or join the corrupt militia and gain a
foothold in war-torn Beirut. Bassam becomes obsessed with leaving the
city, and commits a series of petty crimes to finance his departure.
George amasses power in the militia-ruled underworld and lives a life of
military service, crime for profit, killing and drugs. Ultimately, their
separate paths explosively and tragically collide.
Rawi Hage was born in
Beirut, Lebanon, and lived through nine years of the Lebanese civil war.
He immigrated to Canada in 1992. He is a writer, visual artist, and
curator. His writing has appeared in Fuse Magazine, Mizna, Jouvert,
The Toronto Review and many others, and his visual art has been
shown in galleries and museums around the world. Rawi Hage currently
lives in Montreal.
Vincent
Lam - BLOODLETTING &
MIRACULOUS CURES
In this series of stories,
Vincent Lam investigates both the common and extraordinary moral
dilemmas of our times. Relationships develop among a group of young
doctors as they move from the challenges of medical school to the
intense world of emergency rooms, Evac missions and terrifying new
viruses. In `How to Get into Medical School', the impulsive Fitz and the
ultra-rational Ming explore a relationship that is tested not only by a
disapproving family but by the extraordinary commitment each must make
as medical students. In `Take All of Murphy', three students face the
challenge of their first dissection of a corpse — and decide whether
to follow their anatomy textbook or whether keeping a tattoo intact is
more important.
Vincent Lam was born in
London, Ontario and grew up in Ottawa. His family is from the expatriate
Chinese community of Vietnam. Vincent Lain is a doctor who did his
medical training in Toronto and is an emergency physician who also does
international evacuation work. His non-fiction writing has appeared in The
Globe and Mail, the National Post and the University of
Toronto Medical Journal. Lam's first novel will be published by
Doubleday in 2007. He and his wife live in Toronto.
Pascale
Quiviger - THE PERFECT CIRCLE
Translation by Sheila
Fischman
While vacationing in
Italy, Marianne meets and falls madly in love with Marco, an older man
who lives in a small village in Tuscany. He has a habit of leaving
Marianne to spend her days alone, creeping back into her life on the
occasional evening for a meal, conversation and tenderness. Despite
these mysterious lapses, Marianne, upon returning home to Montreal,
cannot get Marco out of her head. She realizes that he is her one true
love. She returns to Italy indefinitely to pursue her passion. She soon
discovers that the `quaint' Tuscan village is simply small. Marco, it
becomes clear, is very much a mama's boy, and the love she thought would
conquer all, falls woefully short of her expectations.
Pascale Quiviger is the
author of two books, both of which were published by Les Editions de
L'instant meme, The first, Ni Sols, ni ciels, a collection of
short stories, was published in 2001. The second, Le cercle parfait,
was published in 2004 to universal acclaim. Born in Montreal, Quiviger
holds a Master's Degree in Philosophy and a degree in Fine Arts. She
lives in England and Italy, where she paints, writes and teaches visual
arts. Her work has been exhibited in both Canada and Italy. She is
married and has a daughter.
A native of Saskatchewan,
Sheila Fischman was educated in Toronto, and subsequently moved to
Quebec. Fischman's list of translations from the French includes some 8o
translations from French to English, principally of novels by
contemporary Quebec writers such as Yves Beauchemin, Lise Bissonnette,
Marie-Claire Blais and Anne Hebert. She has received numerous prizes,
was a two-time (1974 and 1984) winner of the Canada Council Translation
Prize; won the Governor General's Translation Prize in 1998 for Michel
Tremblay's Les vues animees; won the Felix-Antoine Savard twice; and was
the winner of the IBBY Award for translation in 1998. Fischman was
invested with the Order of Canada in 2000.
Gaetan
Soucy - THE IMMACULATE
CONCEPTION
Translation by Lazer
Lederhendler
East-end Montreal is the
backdrop for this English translation of Gaetan Soucy's first novel,
originally published in French in 1994. It is the mid-1920's in the
city's working class parish of Nativite. A popular restaurant, the Grill
aux Alouettes, is razed to the ground by an arsonist. Seventy five
people perish in the inferno. While strolling with his wheelchair-ridden
father, a man furtively salvages a charred icon from the ruins. He is
Remouald Tremblay, a self-effacing bank clerk whose pocket holds a
treasured rabbit's foot and whose memory contains an unspeakable hell.
This is the story of lives so ordinary, they verge on the grotesque,
coming alive in characters like the clubfooted schoolteacher, a demonic
fire chief, a demented lumberjack, a pianist and a mortician.
Originally published in
1994 as L'Immaculee conception, this is the novel that
established Gaetan Soucy as a powerful new literary force in Quebec.
Soucy has written four novels, all to rave reviews in Quebec and abroad.
He studied physics at l'Universite de Montreal, completed a Master's
degree in philosophy and studied Japanese language and literature at
McGill University. Gaetan Soucy lives and works in Montreal.
Lazer Lederhendler was a
finalist for the Governor General's Award for Translation in 1999 and
2002. He teaches English in Montreal.
Carol
Windley - HOME SCHOOLING
These seven stories are
framed against the rural landscape of Vancouver Island and the cities of
the Pacific Northwest. The memories and dreams of characters are
examined, revealing them in full as diverse and unforgettable
individuals confronting their own sorrows and triumphs. In `Sand and
Frost', a young girl faces up to a brutal, violent family tragedy. In
`The Reading Elvis', Graham finds himself lost in a world of challenging
multiplicity, as figures from the present and the past appear and
disappear, as if mischievously illustrating for his benefit Nietzsche's
Law of Eternal Return. In the title story, Annabel and the rest of her
family struggles to assert their independence from her father and his
vision of what their lives should be.
Carol Windley is the
author of the award-winning collection of short stories, Visible Light,
and the acclaimed novel, Breathing Underwater. Visible Light, her debut
collection, won the 1993 Bumbershoot Award (Weyehauser's fiction prize)
and was nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize as well as the
Governor General's Literary Award. Windley fiction has been published in
literary magazines across Canada, including The Malahat Review, Event
Magazine, and Descant. In 2002, she won a Western Magazine
Award for `What Saffi Knows', the opening story in Home Schooling. Born
on Vancouver Island, Windley has taught at Malaspina College, and now
lives in Nanaimo with her husband.
*
Jack Rabinovitch, who
founded the Prize in 1994 in memory of his late wife, literary
journalist Doris Giller, spoke at the press conference. He was joined by
jurors Adrienne Clarkson and Michael Winter who announced the shortlist.
The
Broadcast Partner
CTV is the broadcast
partner for The Scotiabank Giller Prize for the second year in a row.
CTV personality Seamus O'Regan will reprise his role as host of the
prize gala and broadcast this year. Additional details regarding the
broadcast will be announced soon.
Scotiabank
This is the second year of
the partnership between The Giller Prize and Scotiabank. John Doig,
Senior Vice-President, Marketing, Domestic Personal Banking, Scotiabank,
was at the news conference and said, "Literature is a cornerstone
for arts and culture in Canada and Scotiabank is proud to support and
celebrate the literary accomplishments and aspirations of Canadian
writers. This relationship reinforces our commitment to the literary
community."
In September of 2005, Jack
Rabinovitch announced that Scotiabank would become the first ever
co-sponsor of Canada's richest literary award for fiction. Under the new
agreement, the prize became known as The Scotiabank Giller Prize. As a
result of the bank's involvement, the prize purse doubled, growing to
Cdn$50,000 with $40,000 going to the winner, and $2,500 being given to
each of the four finalists.
This year, the finalists
will be honoured and a winner announced at a gala black tie dinner and
awards ceremony to be held at Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel on November
7, 2006.
`Guess the Giller'
Promotion
The Scotiabank Giller
Prize is pleased to be partnering with public libraries across the
country for the fourth annual `Guess the Giller' promotion. The
promotion began with the Toronto Public Library through a pilot project
in 2003. Today, the promotion is running in 17 libraries across Canada.
The first two winning entries at each library will receive the entire
2006 shortlist library. Scotiabank will also run its own Guess the
Giller contest through its 950 branches across the country.
Harbourfront International
Festival of Authors
For the third year in a
row, the Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists will have the honour of
reading at the IFOA's Closing Night on Saturday, October 28th. For more
information, please visit www.harbourfrontcentre.com.
On the same day, starting at 3pm, the finalists have been invited to
participate in a LonPenTM signing from Harbourfront Centre
into the Nicholas Hoare bookstore on Greene Ave. in Montreal. Operating
over the Internet, the Margaret Atwood-invented LongPenTM,
allows authors to interact with readers via video conferencing and sign
autographs anywhere in the world without actually being there in person.
Please visit www.longpen.com for
more details.
The Giller Light
On Giller night, November
7th – and for the fourth year in a row – Frontier College will host
The Giller Light Bash, to be held at The Steamwhistle Brewery. Their
goal is to raise funds to help children and youth improve their reading
and writing skills through an expansion of Frontier College's Homework
Clubs and after-school literacy programs for inner-city students. To
date, the Giller Light Bash has raised over $40,000 for Frontier
College. Please visit www.gillerlight.ca
for more information.
Scotiabank is committed to
supporting the communities in which we live and work, both in Canada and
abroad. Recognized as a leader internationally and among Canadian
corporations for its charitable donations and philanthropic activities,
in 2005 the Bank provided more than $40 million in sponsorships and
donations to a variety of projects and initiatives, primarily in the
areas of healthcare, education and social services. Scotiabank is on the
World Wide Web at www.scotiabank.com.
CTV is the proud broadcast
partner for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Like The JUNO Awards and
Canada's Walk of Fame, the Scotiabank Giller Prize is an integral part
of CTV's winning broadcast schedule and its lineup of nation-building
programs.
|