Twelve outstanding Canadian authors have been named to the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. Kicking off the 30th anniversary of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, 2022’s winner Suzette Mayr, announced the longlist in St. John’s, NFLD to a crowd of book lovers, authors, and publishers.
The 12 titles were chosen from 145 books submitted by publishers across Canada, an all-time record number of submissions.
The longlist for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize is:
- Menaka Raman-Wilms for her novel The Rooftop Garden, published by Nightwood Editions
- David Bergen for his novel Away From the Dead, published by Goose Lane Editions
- Sarah Bernstein for her novel Study For Obedience, published by Knopf Canada
- Eleanor Catton for her novel Birnam Wood, published by McClelland & Stewart
- Kevin Chong for his novel The Double Life of Benson Yu, published by Simon & Schuster
- Nina Dunic for her novel The Clarion, published by Invisible Publishing
- Erum Shazia Hasan for her novel We Meant Well, published by ECW Press
- Dionne Irving for her short story collection, The Islands: Stories, published by Catapult Press
- Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer for her novel Wait Softly Brother, published by Wolsak & Wynn
- CS Richardson for his novel All The Colour in the World, published by Knopf Canada
- Kasia Von Schaik for her short story collection We Have Never Lived on Earth, published by The University of Alberta Press
- Deborah Willis for her novel Girlfriend on Mars, published by Hamish Hamilton
The longlist was selected by an esteemed panel of five judges: Canadian authors Ian Williams (jury chair, 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner), Sharon Bala, Brian Thomas Isaac, American author Rebecca Makkai and British-Indian writer Neel Mukherjee.
Of the longlist, the jury wrote:
“The 2023 Scotiabank Giller longlist features a party of Canadian literature! Short story collections mingle with novels, established writers with emerging ones. Writers from various parts of the country and beyond its borders share the list together. They discuss family, friendships, the climate crisis, war, privilege, good intentions. Neat, quiet, intimate, introverted stories of relationships brush against loud messy globetrotting stories. These books made the jury think about them long afterward; sometimes they haunted us, sometimes they were like earworms we couldn’t stop singing. Stylistically, they dressed up, they stripped down. They were drunk with life, they were sobering. They pushed pleasure on us even while they occasionally provoked and puzzled us. This longlist is unafraid of being censored or misunderstood. The writers ask for our patience and sophistication; they stand up against all threats, AI included, and remind us of the unmatchable power of the human imagination.”
“The jury read thoughtfully with full hearts and tremendous engagement to create this year’s longlist of 12 authors. They consumed 145 books, wading through different worlds, voices and generations and decided these books and these writers worthy of the highest recognition and recommendation. I thank them for a difficult job exceedingly well done and offer the finalists my heartiest congratulations.”
– Elana Rabinovitch, Executive Director, Scotiabank Giller Prize
Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists will take you inside the minds and creative lives of the writers on the 2023 shortlist. A local event will be held at the Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver on October 16, 2023.
About the Prize
Founded by Jack Rabinovitch in 1994, the Giller Prize is Canada’s leading and most influential literary prize for fiction. The Giller Effect has been recognized industry-wide as one of the top drivers of book sales in Canada. Scotiabank has been title sponsor since 2005. The Scotiabank Giller Prize now awards $100,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel, graphic novel or short story collection published in English, and $10,000 to each of the finalists. The award is named in honour of Jack Rabinovitch’s wife, the late literary journalist, Doris Giller.
The Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist will be announced on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, with the Scotiabank Giller Prize winner announced on November 13, 2023.
