MacIntyre, McAdam make short list for Giller Prize
Published Wednesday October 7th, 2009
Books: Canada's most lucrative literary award will be announced next month
TORONTO - There were only two men on the long list of 12 finalists for this year's Scotiabank Giller Prize, but both made the final cut of five Tuesday, while one of Canada's most notable literary names did not.
CBC broadcaster Linden MacIntyre, Colin McAdam, Anne Michaels, Annabel Lyon and Kim Echlin were named as the final five contenders for the $50,000 prize, Canada's most lucrative literary award.
Noticeably absent from the short list was Margaret Atwood, who had made the long list, which jurors Russell Banks, Victoria Glendinning and Alistair Macleod gleaned from 96 books originally up for consideration.
MacIntyre is in the running for his novel about religious scandal, entitled The Bishop's Man (Random House Canada), Michaels made the cut for The Winter Vault (McClelland & Stewart), Echlin is in the Giller race for her third novel, The Disappeared (Hamish Hamilton Canada), McAdam is up for his second novel, Fall (Hamish Hamilton Canada), and Lyon has been nominated for her debut novel, The Golden Mean (Random House Canada).
Banks said the judges narrowed down the titles during a number of phone conversations and were able to make their decision "congenially,'' without too many major disagreements. But he predicted that choosing a winner will be much more difficult.
"Getting to the point where we had those five out of the 12 was very hard but happily, Alastair and Victoria and I were able to find quick and relatively easy agreement,'' he said "Going from 95 to 12 wasn't as difficult as going from 12 to five, and I suspect although we haven't started it yet, going from five to one is going to be even harder.''
This year is the first time non-Canadian writers are among the jurors - Macleod is Canadian, while Banks is American and Glendinning is British. Glendinning caused a bit of a stir in recent weeks after writing about her experience as a Giller juror in the British Financial Times newspaper.
"Reading almost 100 works of Canadian fiction, as one of the judges for this year's Giller, is a life-enhancing experience, and gives a glimpse into the culture,'' she wrote, and explained how Canadians say "eavestrough'' instead of "gutter'' and love their tuques and Muskoka chairs.
But it was her comments about how some of the 96 Giller nominees were "unbelievably dreadful'' and the unique government funding for authors and small publishing houses that caused some rankles in the literary world here.
"It seems in Canada that you only have to write a novel to get grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and from your provincial Arts Council,'' she wrote. "If you want to get your novel published, be Canadian.''
On Tuesday, she said she was a bit bewildered by the backlash and surprised that some Canadians would take offence at her column.
"It didn't enter my head that a country so prosperous, so successful, so large as Canada and so honourable - you're the only country that didn't get had by the prime mortgage rubbish - could possibly be condescended to, it didn't enter my head,'' she said.
"But it's not for me to say why (people reacted strongly to her column) or what that is.''
Glendinning, who has also judged for the UK Man Booker Prize, said she also didn't realize it was somewhat unusual for Giller judges to speak out about the judging process before the prize is awarded.
"This may seem amazing and naive but I thought I was helping the prize, because there's always plants and leaks in the British press - about a judge writing about his experience with the prize, or how he left his notes in the lavatory or something like that - in order to get publicity,'' she said.
"I didn't know it was such a taboo here.''
The Giller winner will be announced at a dinner to be held Nov. 10 in Toronto.
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