TORONTO, Sept. 8, 2021 /CNW/ - Elana Rabinovitch, Executive Director of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, is pleased to share the Prize's 2021 longlist. The Prize's 2020 winner, Souvankham Thammavongsa, announced the list today on www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/live. It was also announced via the Scotiabank Giller Prize's YouTube and Facebook page. 

The 12 titles were chosen from a field of 132 books submitted by publishers from across Canada. This year, the Prize celebrates its 28^th anniversary.

The longlist for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize includes:

• Cedar Bowers for her novel Astra, published by McClelland & Stewart
• Omar El Akkad for his novel, What Strange Paradise, published by McClelland & Stewart
• Angelique Lalonde for her story collection, Glorious Frazzled Beings, published by House of Anansi
• Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onubia for her novel The Son of The House, published by Dundurn Press
• Casey Plett for her story collection, A Dream of a Woman, published by Arsenal Pulp Press
• Rachel Rose for her story collection The Octopus Has Three Hearts, published by Douglas & McIntyre
• Linda Rui Feng for her novel Swimming Back to Trout River, published by Simon & Schuster
• Jordan Tannahill for his novel The Listeners, published by HarperCollins Canada
• Kim Thuy for her novel, Em, published by Random House Canada
• Miriam Toews for her novel Fight Night, published by Knopf Canada
• Katherena Vermette for her novel The Strangers, published by Hamish Hamilton Canada
• Aimee Wall for her novel We, Jane, published by Book*hug Press

The longlist was selected by an esteemed panel of five judges: Canadian authors Zalika Reid Benta (Jury Chair), Megan Gail Coles, Joshua Whitehead, Malaysian novelist Tash Aw and American author Joshua Ferris.

Of the longlist, the jury wrote:

In a year of logistical challenges and the continued relevance of virtual meeting platforms, the jury of the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize has emerged from many hours of private reading and many rounds of lively debate with a longlist of twelve titles. This extraordinary dozen showcases an ecstatic diversity of voices and styles, of narrative deployment and moral urgency, of formal innovation and old-fashioned storytelling pleasure. There is something for everyone on this list, and within each of these books there is to be found beauty, honest reckoning, human compassion, and the irrefutable mark of the sublime. It was the jury's great honour to delight in the manifold achievements of these books, and with their announcement we leave this debate settled for another year: Canada's literature is as vibrant and expansive as ever.

Quotes

"The jury has selected a dazzling group of writers to represent the very best in Canadian fiction for 2021. There's no denying the enormous impact of women's writing on the literary scene this year. I'm grateful to each jury member for their razor-sharp reading and delighted for this year's longlisted writers." 
- Elana Rabinovitch, Executive Director, Scotiabank Giller Prize

"The last year has continued to be one of uncertainty for Canada and for Canadians and many have found comfort between the pages of a good book. Scotiabank proudly congratulates the 12 longlisted authors of the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize as they have provided readers with comfort, escape and adventure during these challenging times."
 -John Doig, Executive Vice President, Retail Distribution, Scotiabank

The Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist will be announced on Tuesday, October 5, at 11 a.m. ET at a press conference at The Park Hyatt hotel in Toronto. It will also be livestreamed on www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/live, and the Scotiabank Giller Prize's YouTube and Facebook page.

Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists will be presented at Koerner Hall in Toronto, on November 4. Hosted by Jael Richardson, it will be an hour of readings, questions and answers, and will take you inside the minds and creative lives of the writers on the 2021 shortlist. For more information, please visit: www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/news-events/events-and-important-dates/

Watch the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize on Monday, November 8, at 9 p.m. ET (11:30 AT, 12 midnight NT) on CBC and the free CBC Gem streaming service.

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, graphic 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 a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future" we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success 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 over 90,000 employees and assets of approximately $1.2 trillion (as at July 31, 2021), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit http://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 also deliver content in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog, as well as both official languages, through Radio Canada International (RCI). We are leading the transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world. Watch the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize on Monday, November 8, at 9 p.m. (12 midnight NT, 11:30 p.m. AT) on CBC TV and the free CBC Gem streaming service. A livestream will be available on CBC Books, and a broadcast special will be available on CBC Radio One and the CBC Listen App. For more information visit, cbcbooks.ca/gillerprize

About Audible, Inc.
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. 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