TORONTO, Oct. 1, 2018 /CNW/ - Today, at the Scotiabank Centre in Toronto, more than 100 media and members of the publishing industry gathered for the unveiling of the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist. 

CBC Radio's Gill Deacon hosted the special event, while 2018 jury members Kamal Al-Solaylee, Maxine Bailey, Philip Hensher and Heather O'Neill were on hand to announce the 2018 finalists and read citations for each title.

The five titles were chosen from a longlist of 12 books announced in St. John's, NL on September 17, 2018. One hundred and four titles were submitted from publishers across the country.

This year the Prize celebrates its 25^th anniversary.

The shortlist for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize is:

• 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
• Sheila Heti for her novel Motherhood, published by Knopf Canada
• Thea Lim for her novel An Ocean of Minutes, published by Viking Canada

The 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlisted books are available in accessible format for print-disabled Canadians through the National Network for Equitable Library Service NNELS (nnels.ca) and the Centre for Equitable Library Access CELA (celalibrary.ca).

CBC is pleased to announce the award winning comedian Rick Mercer as the host of the Scotiabank Giller Prize Gala on November 19. This is the third time that the political satirist and Newfoundland native has hosted the literary gala and it will be Mercer's first on-air appearance as host since concluding his hugely successful 15-season run as host of CBC's award-winning and beloved series The Rick Mercer Report.

The 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize will air on Monday, November 19, on CBC at 8 p.m. ET (11:30 AT / Midnight NT), CBC Radio One at 8 p.m. ET (9:00 AT/ 9:30 NT) and will be livestreamed at CBCBooks.ca at 8 p.m. ET.

Quotes

"I couldn't be more delighted for these five authors. Their books reflect the breadth and width of human experience, creativity and consciousness. The Canadian literature we are seeing continues to deepen and expand in quality and excellence. I'm proud that the Scotiabank Giller Prize can help highlight such important works."
-Elana Rabinovitch, Executive Director, Scotiabank Giller Prize

 "Congratulations to the shortlisted authors! Scotiabank is proud to support the great works of our country's talented fiction writers through the Scotiabank Giller Prize. We will once again be taking these authors to five Canadian cities, as well as New York City and London England, for readings of their works, as part of the Between the Pages series of events. Our intent through these events is to help make the arts more accessible to communities across Canada and internationally. We are honoured to continue to work with the Rabinovitch family to celebrate Canadian literature through the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and congratulate them on 25 inspiring years."
- John Doig, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Scotiabank

SPONSORSHIP AND EVENTS:

The winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize will be given an opportunity to explore, expand, and develop their practice during a two-week, self-directed residency in Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity's exclusive Leighton Artists' Studios.  Located on Treaty 7 territory in Banff National Park, Banff Centre is Canada's largest post graduate arts and leadership training institute (banffcentre.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.

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/

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.

About Banff Centre

Founded in 1933, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is a learning organization built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and creative development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become the global organization leading in arts, culture, and creativity across dozens of disciplines. From our home in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to inspire everyone who attends our campus – artists, leaders, and thinkers – to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to society through cross-disciplinary learning opportunities, world-class performances, and public outreach. www.banffcentre.ca

SOURCE Scotiabank