ST. JOHN'S, NL, Sept. 17, 2018 /CNW/ - The Scotiabank Giller Prize is pleased to announce its longlist for this year's award. The 2017 Prize winner, Michael Redhill, announced the list during a ceremony at The Rooms in St. John's, NL. The 12 titles were chosen from a field of 104 books submitted by publishers all across Canada.

This year the Prize celebrates its 25^th anniversary.

The longlist for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize is:

• Paige Cooper for her story collection Zolitude, published by A John Metcalf Book, an imprint of Biblioasis
• Patrick DeWitt for his novel French Exit, published by House of Anansi Press
• Eric Dupont for his novel Songs for the Cold of Heart, translated by Peter McCambridge, published by QC Fiction, an imprint of Baraka Books
• Esi Edugyan for her novel Washington Black, published by Patrick Crean Editions, an imprint of HarperCollins Canada
• Rawi Hage for his novel Beirut Hellfire Society, published by Knopf Canada
• Sheila Heti for her novel Motherhood, published by Knopf Canada
• Emma Hooper for her novel Our Homesick Songs, published by Hamish Hamilton Canada
• Thea Lim for her novel An Ocean of Minutes, published by Viking Canada
• Lisa Moore for her story collection Something for Everyone, published by Astoria, an imprint of House of Anansi Press
• Tanya Tagaq for her novel Split Tooth, published by Viking Canada
• Kim Thúy for her novel Vi, translated by Sheila Fischman, published by Random House Canada
• Joshua Whitehead for his novel Jonny Appleseed, published by Arsenal Pulp Press

The longlist was selected by an esteemed five-member jury panel:  Canadian writer and journalist Kamal Al-Solaylee (Jury Chair), playwright and Vice President of advancement for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Maxine Bailey, American writer John Freeman, English novelist Philip Hensher, and Canadian author Heather O'Neill.

Of the longlist, the jury wrote:

"We the jury devoted many, many delightful and arduous months of our lives coming up with this longlist. Our sole criteria going into this process was literary excellence. We were looking for books that were written in elevated, idiosyncratic, original prose that exhibited an exquisite command of the art of language, and unparalleled mastery of structure and storytelling. We argued viciously over books, expounding on their merits. But when the battle was over, what remained left us in awe. This list reflects the landscape of the current Canadian imagination: diverse, bold, edgy, exciting, reflective, aware, angry and joyous. Leave it to our literature to speak out beautifully from the far-flung edges of this huge mysterious land, and sing about the erased, the immigrants, the oppressed, the survivors, the entitled. It also reflects the myriad genres that Canadian writers are working in: auto-fiction, science-fiction, epic family sagas, historical novels, coming of age dramas, short-stories, satire. These are stories about and beyond Canada, a list so exciting, exhibiting such pure excellence, it stands up to any list in the world, and it is great, great fun to read."

This year's shortlist will be announced at a press event to be held at the Scotiabank Centre at Scotia Plaza in Toronto on Monday, October 1, at 11 a.m. ET. (Doors open at 10:30 a.m.)

Quotes

"I am just delighted for these twelve finalists. They have written extraordinary books that deserve to be read, and read widely. After 25 years, the Prize continues to do what it set out to do all those years ago – spotlight and promote Canadian writers and their books to Canada and the world. We hope to continue doing this work for another 25 years.We could not have done any of this without our most valued partner, Scotiabank. We thank them for their ongoing support and dedication to Canadian literature."
     -Elana Rabinovitch, Executive Director, Scotiabank Giller Prize

"This is an exciting year for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, as we join book lovers in celebrating the 25^th anniversary of this important literary award. Scotiabank is proud to support Canada's talented fiction writers through the Prize. We congratulate the longlisted authors for being recognized for their inspiring works and look forward to celebrating the finalists and winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize in November."
     - John Doig, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Scotiabank

Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists will take you inside the minds and creative lives of the writers on the 2018 shortlist. All venues are wheelchair accessible and an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter will be present.

The Scotiabank Giller Prize is delighted to present the Between the Pages series of readings featuring this year's shortlisted authors, taking place in:

• Calgary – October 11;
• Vancouver – October 15;
• Halifax – October 25;
• Ottawa – October 30;
• Toronto – November 5;
• New York City – November 7; and,
• London, U.K. – November 15. 

For more information, please visit: www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/news-events/events-and-important-dates/

The 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize will air on Monday, November 19, on CBC at 8 p.m. (ET) CBC Radio One at 8 p.m. (ET) and will be livestreamed at CBCBooks.ca.

Audible, the world's largest creator and distributor of audiobooks, is committed to supporting talented Canadian authors and narrators and is proud to be the exclusive audiobook sponsor of the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

About the Prize

The Giller Prize, founded by Jack Rabinovitch in 1994, highlights the very best in Canadian fiction year after year. In 2005, the prize teamed up with Scotiabank who increased the winnings 4-fold. The Scotiabank Giller Prize now awards $100,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English, and $10,000 to each of the finalists. The award is named in honour of the late literary journalist Doris Giller by her husband Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch, who passed away in August 2017.

About Scotiabank           

Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in the Americas. We are dedicated to helping our 25 million customers become better off through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of more than 96,000 employees and assets of $947 billion (as at July 31, 2018), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @Scotiabankviews.

About CBC/Radio-Canada

CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada's national public broadcaster. Through our mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain, we play a central role in strengthening Canadian culture. As Canada's trusted news source, we offer a uniquely Canadian perspective on news, current affairs and world affairs. Our distinctively homegrown entertainment programming draws audiences from across the country. Deeply rooted in communities, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages. We are leading the transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world.

About Audible, Inc.

Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ: AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio content, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible was created to unleash the emotive music in language and the habituating power and utility of verbal expression. Audible content includes more than 375,000 audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers.

SOURCE Scotiabank