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Giller Prize

ぎらーしょう

Annual literary award for English-language fiction (novels, short story collections, including translations) in Canada. Established in 1994.

English-language works (including translations)Canadian literatureFiction (novels, short story collections)
Established
1994
Organizer
Giller Foundation
Category
Research, Translation, and Scholarship
Selection Method
Open call
Target
Open
Frequency
1 per year
Announcement Period
around September–October
Status
Active

Description

The Giller Prize was established in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch in memory of his late wife Doris Giller as an annual literary award targeting English-language works in Canada. It operates as a juried competition with entries submitted by publishers, proceeding through a longlist (introduced in 2006, 10-15 titles), shortlist (usually 5 titles), with the winning work announced in November. Scotiabank was the title sponsor from 2005 to 2023, after which there were changes to the name and sponsorship structure. Since 2014, CAD 100,000 is awarded to the winner, and shortlist nominees receive stipulated prize money. For winning translated works, the prize is shared between the original author and translator (previously regulated as 70%/30% split).

Prize

Main Prize
Cash prize to winner (CAD 100,000 to winner since 2014, CAD 10,000 to each shortlist nominee, etc.) and trophy.
Cash Prize
100,000 CAD
  • CAD 10,000 each to shortlist candidates (varies by year)
  • For winning translated works, prize money shared between original author and translator (e.g., 70%/30%)
  • Trophy (previously bronze statue by Yehouda Chaki, currently design by Soheil Mosun, etc.)

Selection

Selection Process

Submission
Judges Publishers submit entries (received by organizer)
Pass Rate Not disclosed (varies by number of submissions per year)
Announcement Submission guidelines and deadlines provided on organizer's website
Longlist selection
Judges Selection committee panel (jury) selects from submitted works
Pass Rate Usually 10-15 titles selected (criteria since 2006)
Announcement Longlist usually announced around September
Shortlist selection
Judges Same selection committee panel narrows down from longlist
Pass Rate Usually narrowed to 5 from longlist (varies by year)
Announcement Shortlist usually announced around October
Final selection and winner determination
Judges Final vote by selection committee (typically 5-member panel since 2015)
Pass Rate 1 winner (usually 1 person) from shortlist. Exceptions with multiple winners due to ties (e.g., 2000)
Announcement Winner announced at annual November gala ceremony

Criteria

  • Fiction published in English by Canadian writers (translated works include translator information)
  • Published in the previous year (eligibility for submission year)
  • Literary quality (style, language expression)
  • Narrative quality, structure, originality
  • Cultural and critical value or influence of the work

Application Tips

Dos

  • Submit through publisher following guidelines and meeting deadlines
  • Specify formal publication details (publication date, ISBN, translator information, etc.) at time of submission
  • Conduct thorough editing and proofreading to enhance the work's quality
  • Prepare press materials or author profiles to convey background to evaluators

Don''ts

  • Do not submit works that do not meet submission criteria (confirm eligible year and language requirements)
  • Do not submit after deadline or with incomplete materials
  • Do not omit translator information for translated works

From Judges

  • Emphasis on originality of the story and polish of the writing style
  • Demonstrate consistency and depth as a work, regardless of short story collection or novel format
  • For translated works, contributions of both original author and translator are evaluated

Related Awards

  • Governor General's Literary Awards
  • Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
  • The Booker Prize
  • CBC (Canada) literature-related contests and awards

Official Resources

https://gillerprize.ca/

Past Winners

Anne Michaels あん・まいけるず Winner

Beginning on a World War I battlefield and expanding across four generations, this novel traces a family's connections over the course of the twentieth century. War damage, memory, love, loss, and the invisible things captured in photographs are woven together in a poetic and finely controlled style.

Memory is handed down as a chain rather than a break, echoing quietly between layers of time.

240 pages
intergenerational memorywar traumafamily historyphotographyloss and recovery
Sarah Bernstein さら・ばーんすたいん Winner

This allegorical novel follows a young woman who moves to her ancestral region and, after taking a job in her brother's house, finds herself surrounded by distrust and unexplained disturbances. With restrained prose and an atmosphere of unease, it explores obedience, exclusion, and imbalances of power in a highly experimental mode.

In a daily life that slowly unravels, the burden of being an outsider presses in from every side.

208 pages
obedienceoutsiderhoodpowerisolationunease
Suzette Mayr すぜっと・めいあー Winner

Set on a 1929 train, this historical novel follows Baxter, a Black queer sleeping-car porter, as he faces abusive white passengers, unsettling ghostly presences, and a secret love. It captures the harsh realities of rail labor and the pain of being treated as invisible, while balancing quiet humor with mounting tension.

As the train rattles on, the hopes and fears of a man forced into invisibility quietly expand.

224 pages
racismrail laborqueer desirehistorical fictionmemory and self-preservation
Omar El Akkad おまー・える・あっかど Winner

A refugee novel following Amir and Vanna as they navigate survival, empathy, and indifference.

A washed-up boy and an island girl move through a hostile world.

256 pages
refugeesempathysurvivalchildrendisplacement
Souvankham Thammavongsa すうゔぁんかむ・たまゔぉんぐさ Winner
Ian Williams いあん・うぃりあむず Winner

From the chance meeting of Felicia and Edgar, forms of family emerge that cannot be explained by blood alone. Migration, class, race, and parent-child relationships intertwine as people remake one another within suburban life.

Family is not merely born; it is remade again and again through collisions of relationship.

448 pages
familymigrationraceclasssuburbia
Esi Edugyan えし・えどぅぎゃん Winner

Washington Black, a boy raised enslaved on a Barbados sugar plantation, is drawn into a wider world through his master’s brother and begins a journey of escape and self-discovery. The novel folds the violence of slavery into a story of formation and survival.

A boy’s journey to remake himself even after freedom has been taken away.

352 pages
slaveryself-inventionhistorical fictionadventurefreedom
Michael Redhill まいける・れっどひる Winner

A psychological novel in which a writer investigates a mysterious man who resembles him, confronting memory, guilt, and family secrets along the way. Its metafictional design deepens the instability of identity.

Chasing a double turns memory and guilt back toward the self.

288 pages
identitymemoryfamilyurban lifepsychological fiction
Madeleine Thien まどれーん・てぃえん Winner

Against the backdrop of twentieth-century China, the novel follows musicians and families through the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. Memory, inheritance, and loss are woven together in an ensemble story shaped by music.

An ensemble novel that tells modern Chinese history through music and family.

480 pages
modern Chinese historyCultural Revolutionfamily and generationsmemory and traumamusic and culture
André Alexis あんどれ・あれくしす Winner
176 pages
Sean Michaels しょーん・まいけるず Winner

Through the relationship between inventor Léon Theremin and musician Clara Rockmore, the novel interweaves music, espionage, exile, and dreamlike memory.

Like the theremin itself, the story resonates at a distance while following a life in full.

459 pages
musicespionageRussiaexilehistorical fiction
Lynn Coady りん こーでぃー Winner

A short story collection that captures the lonely, strange lives of people in a small town.

A short story collection that captures the lonely, strange lives of people in a small town.

240 pages
short storiessmall townloneliness
Will Ferguson うぃる ふぁーがそん Winner

A novel in which a mother travels to Nigeria after a fraud disaster and tries to trace the truth behind it.

A novel in which a mother travels to Nigeria after a fraud disaster and tries to trace the truth behind it.

432 pages
fraudfamilyNigeria
Esi Edugyan えし えどぅぎゃん Winner

The story of jazz musicians fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe, where music, love, and loyalty become inseparable from survival.

The story of jazz musicians fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe, where music, love, and loyalty become inseparable from survival.

352 pages
jazzwartime Europesurvival
Johanna Skibsrud よはんな すきぶすらっど Winner

A quiet psychological novel in which a father’s past and a daughter’s memory intersect.

A quiet psychological novel in which a father’s past and a daughter’s memory intersect.

memoryfamilypsychological fiction
Linden MacIntyre りんでん まっきんたいあ Winner

A novel that looks at clerical power, guilt, and the aftermath of sexual abuse scandals.

A novel that looks at clerical power, guilt, and the aftermath of sexual abuse scandals.

416 pages
clergyguiltscandal
Joseph Boyden じょせふ ぼいでん Winner

The story of a Cree family searching for a missing sister, layered with memory and loss in the North.

The story of a Cree family searching for a missing sister, layered with memory and loss in the North.

368 pages
familylossthe North
Elizabeth Hay えりざべす へい Winner

A novel set around a Yellowknife radio station, where voice, love, and the pressures of the land collide.

A novel set around a Yellowknife radio station, where voice, love, and the pressures of the land collide.

376 pages
broadcastingnorthern landscapelove
Vincent Lam びんせんと らむ Winner

Interlinked stories in which the friendship and ethics of medical students are tested in the world of hospitals.

Interlinked stories in which the friendship and ethics of medical students are tested in the world of hospitals.

368 pages
medicinefriendshipethics
David Bergen でいびっど ばーげん Winner

A novel in which a father’s disappearance sends his daughter and son to Vietnam in search of memory and forgiveness.

A novel in which a father’s disappearance sends his daughter and son to Vietnam in search of memory and forgiveness.

173 pages
familyVietnam Warforgiveness
Alice Munro ありす まんろー Winner

A linked story collection that follows women’s escapes and acts of self-definition under the shadow of family.

A linked story collection that follows women’s escapes and acts of self-definition under the shadow of family.

352 pages
linked storiesfemale independencefamily

A historical novel about a Kenyan-Indian man's coming of age, political betrayal, and the search for belonging.

A historical novel about a Kenyan-Indian man's coming of age, political betrayal, and the search for belonging.

405 pages
postcolonialismmigrationidentitypoliticsKenya

Set on Barbados, the novel turns one old woman's night-long confession into a reckoning with colonial power, violence, desire, and memory.

One confession summons the history of an island.

480 pages
Barbadoscolonialismmemoryviolenceoral narration

Moving between 1930s Ontario and New York, the novel uses letters and diary entries to trace two sisters as they navigate independence and social pressure.

The exchange of letters reveals both distance and kinship.

448 pages
sisterhood1930sepistolary fictionfemale independenceCanadian fiction

After returning to Sri Lanka, forensic specialist Anil pursues the violence and silences of civil war through the investigation of a set of old bones.

An investigation of bones unseals a buried history.

320 pages
Sri Lankacivil warmemoryforensicshistorical fiction

Against a small New Brunswick community, Sydney Henderson's vow to reject violence is tested by poverty, prejudice, and the community's cruelty.

A vow of mercy becomes its own ordeal.

384 pages
New Brunswickfamilypovertyviolencemorality

A Canadian family novel spanning generations and observing both hope and fragility.

Generational memory and tension accumulate inside the structure of a house.

309 pages
familyCanadagenerationsdomestic fiction
Alice Munro Winner

Eight stories illuminate the secrets, losses, desires, and guilt lying beneath quiet lives in western Canada.

Unspoken feeling lies just beneath the ordinary.

353 pages
short storieswomensecretsdesirewestern Canada

A novel that follows family past and present with irony, wit, and narrative agility.

Family history never stays neatly arranged.

familymemorywitCanadian fiction

Based on a real nineteenth-century Canadian case, the novel traces the ambiguous territory of memory, testimony, and responsibility through the exchanges between Grace Marks and a psychiatrist. It is both historical fiction and a novel about unreliable narration.

Each conflicting account pushes the truth one layer deeper.

480 pages
historical fictionmemorywomencrime

Set in India in the mid-1970s and 1980s, the novel brings together four people from different backgrounds who learn to depend on one another. In the shadow of state violence and poverty, solidarity becomes a fragile form of hope.

In poverty and violence, the bond between four people becomes hope.

603 pages
Indiapovertysolidarityhistorical fiction

When an old diary surfaces in Dar es Salaam, a retired schoolteacher begins tracing the memories and family history that lead back into colonial East Africa.

A single diary reconnects a private life to colonial history.

352 pages
East Africacolonial historydiarymemorydiaspora