Toews, Thúy among female authors dominating Giller long list
TORONTO — Miriam Toews and Kim Thúy are among the female authors dominating this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize long list.
Women made up 10 of the dozen writers in the running for the $100,000 literary honour.
Last year’s winner, Souvankham Thammavongsa, revealed nominees on the long list Wednesday.
Toews and Thúy each received their third Giller nods.
Meanwhile, Katherena Vermette, Casey Plett and Jordan Tannahill are among the dynamic wordsmiths being recognized by the prize for the first time.
The short list will be announced on Oct. 5, and the winner will be named at a televised ceremony on Nov. 8.
Toews is nominated for her Toronto-set multigenerational tale, Fight Night, published by Knopf Canada.
The Manitoba-bred author was shortlisted for the Giller in 2004 for A Complicated Kindness, and again in 2014 for All My Puny Sorrows. The screen adaptation of All My Puny Sorrows is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday.
Thúy is recognized for her story set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, Em, published by Random House Canada, and translated from French by Sheila Fischman.
The Quebec author also shared the Giller spotlight with Fischman for Ru on the 2012 short list, and Vi on the 2018 long list.
Vermette, a Red River Métis author, poet and advocate, is adding a Giller nomination to her long list of accolades with the intergenerational saga The Strangers, published by Hamish Hamilton Canada.
Winnipeg-raised Plett, co-founder of the fledgling feminist publisher LittlePuss Press, is nominated for her short story collection centring transgender women, A Dream of a Woman,” published by Arsenal Pulp Press.