MONTREAL – The Scotiabank Giller Prize has announced its 2014 long list — and says it is doubling the amount of cash it awards.
The prize purse will increase to $140,000, with $100,000 to the winner and $10,000 to each finalist. Organizers say that makes it the richest fiction prize in Canada.
Twelve authors are up for this year’s prize, including 2004 Giller finalist Miriam Toews of Toronto for All My Puny Sorrows. The novel shines a light on depression and mirrors the Manitoba-raised author’s relationship with her late sister and father.
Shani Mootoo, a 1997 Giller finalist who lives outside of Toronto, is on the list with Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab. The story features the author’s native Trinidad as it follows a Toronto writer whose estranged parent has transitioned from female to male.
David Bezmozgis, a Latvian-born 2011 Giller finalist who lives in Toronto, details a day in the life of a disgraced Israeli politician in the longlisted The Betrayers.
And Montreal’s Heather O’Neill writes about the teenage twins of a Quebecois folk singer in The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, her second novel after her 2006 smash debut Lullabies for Little Criminals.
Others on the long list include Frances Itani for Tell, Padma Viswanathan for The Ever After of Ashwin Rao and Claire Holden Rothman for My October.
They were chosen from 161 books submitted by 63 publishers.
This year’s jury panel consists of Canadian author Shauna Singh Baldwin, British novelist Justin Cartwright, and American writer Francine Prose.
“We’re celebrating writers brave enough to change public discourse, generous with their empathy, offering deeply immersive experiences,” the jury said in a statement. “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.”
The Scotiabank Giller Prize will air on Nov. 10.
The complete long list can be found here.
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