Legendary small, independent publisher Coach House Books has two titles on the 2022 Giller Prize short list: Kim Fu’s short-story collection “Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century” and Suzette Mayr’s “The Sleeping Car Porter.” Five authors in total were announced as finalists for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize at, appropriately, the Jack Rabinovitch Reading Room at the Toronto Reference Library.
The Giller Prize was founded by businessman and philanthropist Jack Rabinovitch in 1994 to honour his wife, Doris Giller, a former books editor at the Toronto Star who died of cancer in 1993. The prize then was $25,000. This year, the winner receives $100,000 with each of the shortlisted finalists receiving $10,000.
The 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlisted authors are:
- Kim Fu for “Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century”: Fu’s first book, the 2014 novel “For Today I Am a Boy,” won the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. Her latest is made up of 12 stories in a blend of genres including horror, science fiction and fantasy. Our reviewer called this collection “a balm for troubled minds.” This is Fu’s first appearance as a Giller finalist.
- Rawi Hage for his story collection “Stray Dogs” (Knopf Canada): The Montreal-via-Beirut writer is no stranger to award lists: he won the Dublin Impac prize, now known as the International Dublin Literary Award, for his 2006 debut novel “De Niro’s Game,” which led to his first appearance on the Giller Prize short list; he was also a finalist for his 2008 novel “Cockroach.” “Stray Dogs” is his debut short-story collection. Our reviewer called Hage “one of the most erudite and densely allusive writers working in Canada today,” and this book “reaffirms his devotion to acting as a witness for the fractious lives upended by history and the tides — sometimes literal — that threaten to mow them down.”
- Noor Naga for her novel, “If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English” (Graywolf Press): Naga was born in Philadelphia, grew up in Dubai, studied in Toronto and now lives in Cairo; she’s won or been nominated for multiple Canadian prizes, including for her 2019 verse-novel “Washes, Prays.” “If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English” is an experimental love story that takes place in the aftermath of the Arab Spring and won the Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize. This is her first appearance on a Giller short list.
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- Suzette Mayr for “The Sleeping Car Porter”: Mayr is a repeat Giller nominee; she was longlisted for the prize in 2011 for her novel “Monoceros.” Her latest book is set in 1929: we’re on a trans-Canada train with Baxter, a queer Black train porter, who is saving money to attend dentistry school. Our reviewer said that Mayr “envelopes an absorbing history lesson within an artfully constructed story that moves, beguiles and satisfies.”
- Tsering Yangzom Lama for her novel “We Measure The Earth With Our Bodies” (McClelland & Stewart): It moves from a refugee camp in Nepal in the 1950s to a Parkdale neighbourhood years later, and the The Star’s reviewer wrote that “Lama beautifully conveys both the harshness of the refugee experience and a people’s fierce loyalty to a country that most will never see in their lifetimes … we’ll remember her primary focus: the tenacious identity of a people forever cast out from home.” This is both Lama’s debut novel and debut appearance as a Giller finalist.
The finalists were whittled down to five from a long list of 14 released in September, which was itself narrowed down from 138 works submitted by publishers across Canada by the five-person jury. This year, the jury members were Canadian authors Casey Plett (jury chair), Kaie Kellough and Waubgeshig Rice, and American authors Katie Kitamura and Scott Spencer.
The winner will be announced on Nov. 7 in a show co-hosted by Canadian artist and performer Rupi Kaur and actor Sarah Gadon.
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