Tuesday, October 03, 2006

If Gillers were horses...

I wasn't even close.


Finalists for the 2006 Giller Prize:

* 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
* Gaétan 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


Four out of five are small press; two books in translation; two short story collections; no big names – why do I get the feeling that this year's Giller jury has just become the equivalent of Kurtz in the eyes of much of the Canadian publishing industry?

"The shortlist. You're looking at the shortlist. Sometimes they go too far. They're the first ones to admit it."


[UPDATE: I just did an interview with CBC-TV about the shortlist – no idea how it will look once they finish editing me into articulacy, but right now I'm thinking I should stick to ham radio and semaphore.]

2 comments:

Ognir Rrats said...

Gee, look what happens when you don't stack a jury with Bertelsmann authors, and stack it instead with Anansi/Penguin authors.

nathan said...

Backwards Ringo,

Munro is on M&S, which is sort-of Bertelsmann, and there isn't a Pengiun author on the list. So...

I think this was a willful attempt on the jury's part not to put out "your father's Giller shortlist," but I don't think that particular conspiracy is on the mark.

I welcome others, though.

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