What is the Giller Prize?
The Giller Prize is the equivalent of Britain's Booker Prize and Australia's Miles Franklin Literary Award. It was set up in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller. The winning author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English takes home $50,000 (£31,300).
What is the Shadow Giller?
The Shadow Giller was set up in 1995 by KevinfromCanada — when he was publisher of the Calgary Herald — the book editor of the Herald Ken McGoogan and a local author, Robert Hilles.
The idea is that members of the Shadow Giller jury read all the books on the longlist and determine their own winner in advance of the real announcement.
This year there are four of us on the Shadow Giller jury: Kevin, Toronto-based journalist Alison Gzowski, USA-based blogger Trevor from The Mookse and the Gripes, and myself.
You can read more about how the Shadow Giller works over at Kevin's blog.
What are the key dates?
The shortlist will be announced on October 4, 2011.
(The shortlist comprised: David Bezmozgis' The Free World; Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues; Lynn Coady's The Antagonist; Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers; Zsuzsi Gartner's Better Living Through Plastic Explosives; and Michael Ondaatje's The Cat’s Table)
The Shadow Giller Prize jury will name its winner on November 3 or 4, 2011.
(We selected David Bezmozgis' The Free World — KevinfromCanada's announcement.)
The "real" Giller Prize will be named on November 8, 2011.
(The winner was Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues — KevinfromCanada's announcement)
Reviews of the winning novel:
Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues
Reviews of the shortlisted novels:
David Bezmozgis' The Free World
Lynn Coady's The Antagonist
Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers
Zsuzsi Gartner's Better Living Through Plastic Explosives
Michael Ondaatje's The Cat’s Table
Reviews of longlisted novels:
Clarke Blaise's The Meagre Tarmac
Michael Christie's The Beggar’s Garden
Myrna Dey's Extensions
Marina Endicott's The Little Shadows
Genni Gunn's Solitaria
Pauline Holdstock's Into the Heart of the Country
Wayne Johnston's A World Elsewhere
Dany Laferrière's The Return
Suzette Mayr's Monoceros
Guy Vanderhaeghe's A Good Man
Alexi Zentner's Touch
Please note, this page will be updated as and when books are reviewed.
