At Word On The Street this year, a new buzz kept referring to the Writers Trust Awards as Canada’s literary Golden Globes. As Writers Trust executive director Don Oravec opened the session dedicated to naming this year’s fiction short list, he embraced the idea – though he admitted he craved Oscar status, presumably reserved for the Giller Prize.
What makes the Golden Globes the Golden Globes? Shameless pandering to the stars. Wasn’t it just last year that Angelina Jolie was nominated for The Tourist – in the comedy and musical comedy, for heaven’s sake – just so that she and hubby Brad Pitt would attend and light up the red carpet?
So where are the Writers Trust stars? Fact is, though there are two Booker short listers on the Writers Trust list, this year’s jury – Emma Donaghue (last year’s winner for Room), Rabindranath Maharaj and Margaret Sweatman – couldn’t care less about big names.
And so Esi Edugyan scores another nod to go with her Giller longlist and Booker shortlist mentions for Half-Blood Blues. SImilarly for Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers. Michael Christie, also on the Giller longlist, makes the grade with The Beggar’s Garden, while Clarke Blaise got a spot for The Meagre Tarmac and Dan Vyleta for The Quiet Twin.
I’m disappointed that Helen Humphreys’s The Reinvention Of Love was snubbed. And if you’re gonna go with some relative unknowns, why not go for Nicole Lundrigan’s Glass Boys? It’s got passion, poetry and is set in Newfoundland, perfect if you want to remedy regional disparities in the literary department.
Which is not to say the Writers Trust list isn’t a good one. But it also lacks that other Golden Globes quality: scandal.
Remember the gossip surrounding Pia Zadora’s win in the now defunct “new star” category. Rumours abounded that her wealthy husband had bought off the Hollywood Foreign Press. Damn, this Writers Trust short list doesn’t have a bad book on it – no greased palms on that jury.
And it doesn’t exactly have star quality- no Ondaatje, Hay, Coady. So the Canadian literary Golden Globes?
Not quite.
