07 Nov 2006
Toronto, ON (November 7, 2006) – Vincent Lam has been named the 2006 winner of The Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s premier literary prize for fiction, for his novel Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, published by Doubleday Canada. The announcement was made at a gala dinner and award ceremony that drew more than 450 members of the publishing, media and arts communities. Hosted by Justin Trudeau, The Scotiabank Giller Prize was broadcast across Canada in primetime at 10 p.m. ET on CTV and, for the first time, live around the world on The CTV Broadband Network at 9 p.m. ET at CTV.ca. The telecast will air again tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 8 at 10 a.m. ET and Saturday, Nov. 11 at 4 p.m. ET on CTV (check local listings), as well as on-demand on The CTV Broadband Network at CTV.ca.
The largest annual prize for fiction in the country, The Scotiabank Giller Prize awards $40,000 each year to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English and $2,500 to each of the finalists. A shortlist of five authors and their books was announced on October 3, 2006. Those finalists were:
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
Selected by an esteemed jury panel comprised of The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson and distinguished Canadian authors Alice Munro and Michael Winter, the five finalists were chosen from 101 books submitted for consideration by 36 publishing houses from every region of the country.
Of the winning book, the jury remarked: “This series of inter-linked stories is a profound and meaningful glimpse into a world which seems on the surface to be purely medical, but leads us into the metaphorical. The characters and the situations are unexpectedly bound together and make us, as readers, not just witnesses to, but participants in, the world that has been created for us.”
Vincent Lam was born in London, Ontario and grew up in Ottawa. His family is from the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam. Vincent Lam is a doctor who did his medical training in Toronto and is an emergency physician who also does international evacuation work. His non-fiction writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, the National Post and the University of Toronto Medical Journal. Lam’s first novel will be published by Doubleday in 2007. He and his wife live in Toronto.
During tonight’s award ceremony, a roster of celebrity presenters – Margaret Atwood, Wendy Crewson, Sophie Gregoire, Eric Peterson, Albert Schultz and Janet Wright – read the jury remarks, introduced video profiles of the short-listed authors, and presented each of them with a leather bound copy of their book.
2006 marks the second year of the partnership between The Giller Prize and Scotiabank. On September 22, 2005, Jack Rabinovitch and Rick Waugh, President and CEO of Scotiabank announced that the bank would become the first ever co-sponsor of Canada’s richest literary award for fiction. Under the new agreement, the prize became known as The Scotiabank Giller Prize. The purse doubled, growing to Cdn $50,000 with $40,000 going to the winner, and $2,500 being given to each of the four finalists. Beginning last year, CTV became the exclusive broadcast partner for The Scotiabank Giller Prize.
The Scotiabank Giller Light
Also on November 7th – and for the 4th year in a row – Frontier College hosted The Scotiabank Giller Light at The Steam Whistle Brewery. Their goal is to raise funds to help children and youth improve their reading and writing skills through an expansion of Frontier College’s Homework Clubs and its after-school literacy program for inner-city students. To date, the Giller Light has raised well over $40,000 for Frontier College. Please visit www.gillerlight.ca for more information.
Public Library Promotion
As it has for the past four years, the Prize partnered with public libraries across the country for the ‘Guess the Giller’ promotion. A pilot project with the Toronto Public Library in 2003 launched the promotion, which now runs in 17 libraries across Canada. Winning entries receive a complete set of the current year’s short-listed titles.
Scotiabank
Scotiabank is running the “Guess the Giller” contest in their 950 branches across Canada. Scotiabank is committed to supporting the communities in which we live and work, both in Canada and abroad. Recognized as a leader internationally and among Canadian corporations for its charitable donations and philanthropic activities, in 2005 the Bank provided more than $40 million in sponsorships and donations to a variety of projects and initiatives, primarily in the areas of healthcare, education and social services. Scotiabank is on the World Wide Web at www.scotiabank.com.
CTV
CTV, Canada's largest private broadcaster, offers a wide range of quality news, sports, information, and entertainment programming. It has the number-one national newscast, CTV National News With Lloyd Robertson, and is the number-one choice for prime-time viewing. CTV owns 21 conventional television stations across Canada and has interests in 16 specialty channels, including the number-one Canadian specialty channel, TSN. CTV is owned by Bell Globemedia, Canada's premier multi-media company. More information about CTV may be found on the company website at www.ctv.ca.
For more news about the prize, including past winners, jury members and short-listed authors, please visit www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca
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For further information:
The Scotiabank Giller Prize:
Please contact: Elana Rabinovitch 416.934.0755
CTV
Please contact: Renée Dupuis 416.332.4596
Scotiabank:
Please contact: Joe Konecny 416.933.179