Advertisement

Art & Books Books

Small presses score big on Giller shortlist

Standing beside Dan Wells, I was amazed at how the Biblioasis publisher held his cool during this morning’s Giller shortlist announcement. As the jury – John Boyne, Alison Pick, Cecil Foster and Alexander MacLeod (Helen Oyeyemi could not attend) – announced that both Samuel Archibald’s short story collection Avida and Anakana Schofield’s Martin John made the cut, he barely twitched. He remained frozen with a half smile even when I muttered an audible, “Cha ching.”

André Alexis became the only author shortlisted for both the Writers Trust and Giller prizes for Fifteen Dogs. Also on the list: Rachel Cusk, for Outline and DayDreams Of Angels author Heather O’Neill – a rare back-to-back shortlister, acknowledged last year for The Girl Who Was Saturday Night – both published by HarperCollins.

That makes three indie press and only one large-house book on the shortlist.

That wasn’t the only thing that made the announcement unusual. The original venue for the event was the AGO’s Walker Court but a feared gas leak forced the AGO to close down. A pack of industry types – many bemoaning the absence of snacks and coffee – were herded into the Bau-Xi gallery where, to the Giller team’s immense credit, a podium was quickly set up, champagne was passed around and Rick Mercer told a few jokes, like, “The gas leak was called in by the Man Booker Prize.”

The Giller Prize will be awarded on November 10.

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.