TORONTO — Lauded author Madeleine Thien could land another windfall tonight as the glitzy Scotiabank Giller Prize takes place in Toronto.
The Vancouver-born, Montreal-based writer is up for the $100,000 honour for “Do Not Say We Have Nothing.”
The top-selling novel recently won a $25,000 Governor General’s Literary Award and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.
Other Giller finalists this year include Ontario-based Emma Donoghue for “The Wonder” and Montreal-born author Mona Awad for “13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl,” which won a $40,000 Amazon.ca First Novel Award in May.
Hamilton-based Gary Barwin made the cut for “Yiddish for Pirates,” Zoe Whittall is on the list with “The Best Kind of People,” and Montreal’s Catherine Leroux is a finalist for “The Party Wall” translated by Lazer Lederhendler.
The six titles were chosen from 161 books submitted by 69 publisher imprints.
This year’s jury is made up of Canadian writers Lawrence Hill (jury chair), Jeet Heer and Kathleen Winter, along with British author Samantha Harvey and Scottish writer Alan Warner.
Steve Patterson will host tonight’s ceremony, which will air on CBC-TV.
Presenters include YouTube star Jus Reign, playwright Ins Choi, musician Tanya Tagaq, and actors Gordon Pinsent and Annie Murphy, Catherine Reitman.
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.
The prize’s founder, Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch, named it in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller.