The 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize Announces its Longlist

15 Sep 2008

September 15, 2008 (Toronto, ON) – The 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury today announced its longlist of books in the running for this year’s prize. The jury selected 15 titles out of 95 books, submitted by 38 publishers from every region of Canada.

Award-winning author and previous Giller Prize winner Margaret Atwood; Liberal MP, Foreign Affairs critic and author Bob Rae; and renowned international journalist, professor and author Colm Toibin comprised the 2008 jury.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the prize.

From a highly competitive field, the Scotiabank Giller jury has selected the following titles for this year’s longlist:

			David Adams Richards for his novel The Lost Highway, published by Doubleday Canada
			David Bergen for his novel The Retreat, published by McClelland & Stewart
			Joseph Boyden for his novel Through Black Spruce, published by Viking Canada
			Austin Clarke for his novel More, published by Thomas Allen Publishers
			Anthony De Sa for his collection of short stories Barnacle Love, published by Doubleday Canada
			Emma Donoghue for her novel The Sealed Letter, published by HarperCollins Canada
			Marina Endicott for her novel Good to A Fault, published by Freehand Books/Broadview Press
			Steven Galloway for his novel The Cellist of Sarajevo, published by Knopf Canada
			Rawi Hage for his novel Cockroach, published by House of Anansi Press
			Kenneth J Harvey for his novel Blackstrap Hawco, published by Random House Canada
			Patrick Lane for his novel Red Dog, Red Dog, published by McClelland & Stewart
			Pasha Malla for his collection of short stories The Withdrawal Method, published by House of Anansi Press
			Paul Quarrington for his novel The Ravine, published by Random House Canada
			Nino Ricci for his novel The Origin of Species, published by Doubleday Canada
			Mary Swan for her novel The Boys in the Trees, published by Henry Holt/HB Fenn

Of the longlist, the jury writes:

“These fifteen books vary widely in technique, in setting, and in tone — from the historical to the contemporary, from the comic to the satiric to the tragic, from the local to the international. Nothing unites them but the jury's belief in their accomplishment: each contributes something fresh, original, thoughtful, or vital to the practice of fiction.”

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The Scotiabank Giller Prize awards $50,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English and $5,000 to each of the finalists. The Scotiabank Giller Prize is named in honour of the late literary journalist Doris Giller and was founded in 1994 by her husband Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch.