Scotiabank Giller 2010 Prize Shortlist

[SensualPoet]

Bravo! I'll bet Johanna Skibsrud's The Sentamentalists -- which is otherwise out of print but now magically available in ePub at kobobooks - has a chance of actually being read ... now that it can actually be purchased.

[ATDrake]

Hopefully they won't be geo-restricted to Canada. One really nice thing about e-books (besides all the other stuff) is the way they potentially let people from all over get their hands on all sorts of titles it wouldn't be cost-effective to reprint/ship overseas and lets them experience stuff they might never have heard of, much less tried before.

Plus, it certainly makes our attempted cultural exports cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and possibly more appealing with fewer $$$ spent (assuming the pricing is sane) and less of a carbon footprint.

[taming]

I'm guessing that publishers outside of Canada are not pushing very hard to distribute our books--sorta like our TV .

[ATDrake]

Apparently our TV is pretty popular in translation, though, even if it dies a quick death at home. I think I've seen "Blood Ties", based on Ontario author Tanya Huff's vampire detective series, available dubbed into French, Spanish, and German at the very least. And I know her novels have gotten reprinted in translation on the strength of that, because I've ordered the French versions in both editions that came out.

As for e-books, probably as long as Canadian authors are willing and able to grant e-publishers worldwide distribution rights (possibly non-exclusive, like Baen agrees to) and the publishers actually follow through on getting the stuff out there to as many outlets as they can, it should work out okay. They can be lazy and just stick the files in any store that will accept them, and not bother lifting a finger for any promo work after, just as long as it's there to be bought. Eventually, *something* will probably sell.

I just hope the authors/their agents don't get stubborn about holding out for a separate e-distro deal for each territory, because I don't think that's going to sell, considering that most authors have trouble finding a domestic print publisher at all, much less an overseas one.

[SensualPoet]

There's a review in recent Globe and Mail editions of all five short-listed titles:

The Matter with Morris by David Bergen
Phyllis Bruce Books/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. (Available as an ebook from: kobobooks)

David Bergen's mourning glory
Reviewed by Steven Hayward

Morris Schutt, the hero of Giller Prize-winner David Bergen’s new novel, The Matter With Morris (just long-listed for this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize), used to be happy. Fifty-one years old, a successful newspaper columnist living in Winnipeg, he was once, in the recent past, a man with a Jaguar and a sexy psychiatrist wife. He had a pair of daughters, a grandchild and a son named Martin who smoked up too much and dropped out of university.

Full review of The Matter with Morris here.

Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod
Biblioasis (Available as an ebook from: kobobooks)

Like father, like son
Reviewed by Jim Bartley

For Alexander MacLeod, the paternal shoes (more aptly, wellies) to be filled could not be much be bigger. In the 1970s and 80s, Alistair MacLeod gathered glowing critical and popular acclaim on the strength of his uncommonly pure and spare short fiction. He went on to win, among other awards, the 2001 IMPAC Dublin Prize for his haunting and majestic novel No Great Mischief. MacLeod’s finely honed humanity, expressed with a simplicity that frequently belies the depth and force of its final effects, has by consensus made him one of our CanLit saints.

Full review of Light Lifting here.

This Cake is for the Party by Sarah Selecky
Thomas Allen Publishers (Available as an ebook from: kobobooks)

A very tasty confection, crumbs and all
Reviewed by Lisa Foad

The cover of Sarah Selecky’s debut fiction collection is striking in its insistence upon ruin, lack and nostalgia: A jaggedly reassembled smashed plate is home to a cluster of crumbs, a consumption-smeared fork and the counter-insistent title declaration, This Cake is for the Party. And while the collection explores sites of emotional and physical volatility, Selecky sinks her teeth into something far more powerful than the violence of loss: She skillfully wrests devastation from its customary gloom of lamentation and regret, and bares its overwhelming beauty.

Full review of This Cake is for the Party here.

The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud
Gaspereau Press (Available as an ebook from: kobobooks)

Haunted by the ghosts of war
Reviewed by Zoe Whittall

The Sentimentalists is a debut novel by Johanna Skibsrud, the youngest author to be short-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize since it debuted in 2004 with a nomination for then 29-year-old Shyam Selvardurai. This beautifully designed book – no surprise since it originates from the aesthetes at Gaspereau Press – is a sombre story about the emotional ghosts of war and the unreliable nature of memory. Children of the vibrant boomer generation dealing uncomfortably with their aging parents will likely, as I did, find much to relate to.

Full review of The Sentimentalists here.

Annabel by Kathleen Winter
House of Anansi Press (Available as an ebook from: kobobooks)

It's a boy! It's a girl! It's...
Reviewed by Christine Fischer Guy

It’s fair to say the riddle of gender has engaged Kathleen Winter for some time now. Her 2007 collection of short stories, boYs, limned the daily disconnections between the sexes, major and minor, that keep us from fully comprehending one another. So the fact that she chose a hermaphrodite as the main character for her first novel represents a natural progression: The baby is a literal union of the sexes.

Full review of Annabel here.


Reminder: The prize is awarded November 8th in Toronto.

[SensualPoet]

Well, the big day is almost upon us. Who will win the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize? In about 36 hours, CTV will be broadcasting a gala (for books, for heaven's sake! books! in this age of all digital) tomorrow night at 9 pm during prime time TV. It will even be streamed live at http://shows.ctv.ca although the author interview clips are, inexplicably, geo-restricted. (For those outside of Canada: Hockey is not broadcast on Monday nights so there's a slot open. ).

There's an excellent conversation about the finalists in yesterday's Globe and Mail which gives some good flavour about any of the books you may not have read (like all of them, probably, as some are actually out of print ... thankfully Kobo has them all available as of mid-October but zero are available for Kindle). I thought the comments were pretty harsh in some cases, but there is interesting discussion of "why" a book should be nominated and that, perhaps, new writers should have a handicap over established ones (David Bergen won the prize in 2005).

In addition to fame in winning, or perhaps notoriety, the prize is worth $50,000 which goes a long way to pay the rent on a writer's loft, even in these recessionary times.

So, who's bringing the popcorn tomorrow night at 9?

[taming]

I am so making the popcorn right now! We get it earlier here in Alberta.

First there is Arts and Minds interviews with the 5 finalists and then the gala for the award. Oh dear, what shall I wear?

[SensualPoet]

What's that I hear? Footfalls on the red carpet? The Giller's cocktail party is underway and the Globe and Mail is tweeting from the canapé bar. Who will be announced as the grand winner in about two hour's time? The 2005 winner, David Bergen is the odd's on favourite based on the current folks at G&M poll. All the other author's are first time nominee's and first time published books. My guy, Alexander MacLeod, is trailing the pack ... story of my life. (I was shocked *shocked!* when my city councilor nominee actually won election this month; I almost *always* vote for the guy/gal who loses in every single election.)

[SensualPoet]

Well, the broadcast is now live and Joanna Skribsud has been brought to the stage by Anne Murray ... and, doubting Thomas's if there are any ... Scotiabank renewed it's commitment to the awards tonight providing funding through 2018. Bravo!

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

... and, doubting Thomas's if there are any ... Scotiabank renewed it's commitment to the awards tonight providing funding through 2018.

Well, good for the Giller Prize people as long as they follow through. Congratulations to the winner!

[SensualPoet]

And the winner is ... *drum roll please* ...

[SensualPoet]

... Joanna Skibsrud for The Sentamentalists!

[pholy]

And the email from Kobo was in my in-basket by 22:15...

[taming]

Well, the host did encourage people to buy the books at local bookstores or "download them onto their Kobos, Kindles or iPads."

[SensualPoet]

Yeah, I was impressed by the e-mail I got 13 min past the hour. I am not sure which Kindle the winner's tale (or that of any of the finalists) since, as far as I can see, the only ebook version is in DRM ePub from Kobo.

As awards shows go, it wasn't too smarmy or over the top. But crickey! Everyone in the audience was sooooooooo ollllllllllllllllld!!