B.C. author wins her second Giller Prize
Victoria-based author Esi Edugyan has won the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize for a second time with her latest novel Washington Black.
Published by Patrick Crean Editions, the novel follows the saga of an 11-year-old boy who escapes slavery at a Barbados sugar plantation with the help of the owner’s kinder brother.
Edugyan secured the top prize after a season flush with acclaim for Washington Black, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Writers’ Trust fiction award.
A five-member jury praised Washington Black as “a supremely engrossing novel about friendship and love and the way identity is sometimes a far more vital act of imagination than the age in which one lives.”
Runners-up include Patrick de Witt for French Exit, Thea Lim for An Ocean of Minutes, Sheila Heti’s Motherhood and Songs for the Cold of Heart by Eric Dupont, translated from French by Peter McCambridge.
This is Edugyan’s second Giller win, having previously received the honour for Half-Blood Blues in 2011.
As she accepted the award Monday, Edugyan told the crowd she didn’t prepare a speech, because she didn’t expect to win.
After rattling off a list of supporters she wanted to thank, Edugyan said that in climate in which so “many forms of truth telling are under siege,” the celebration of words felt all the more vital.
Alice Munro and M.G. Vassanji have also won the Giller twice.
Giller Prize Jury members Heather O’Neill, John Freeman, Kamal Al Solaylee, Maxine Bailey and Philip Hensher culled this year’s short list from 104 titles submitted by publishers across the country.
Literary luminaries gathered at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto on Monday night to applaud this year’s Giller winner at a televised gala hosted by comedian Rick Mercer.
Celebrating its 25th year, the Giller 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. Last year’s winner was Michael Redhill for Bellevue Square.