Anne Michaels, Conor Kerr among finalists for 2024 Giller Prize

ric Chacour, Anne Fleming, Conor Kerr, Anne Michaels and Deepa Rajagopalanare the five writers shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.

The $100,000 award annually recognizes the best in Canadian fiction.

The 2024short list features four novels and one short story collection, covering a wide range of material, from SouthAsian diaspora experiences toqueer historical romance to contemporaryMtisstories.

It includes two writers with debut books:ChacourforWhat I Know About You,translated byPablo Strauss, andRajagopalan forPeacocks of Instagram.

Allfinalists but Michaelsare making their first appearance on the Giller shortlist.

Michaels, recognizedthis year forHeld, was shortlisted for the 1996 Giller Prize forFugitive Piecesand in 2009 forThe Winter Vault.Kerr, who is shortlisted forPrairie Edge, was previouslylonglisted in 2022 for his novelAvenue of Champions.

Kerr is also one of the 2025 judges for theCBC Short Story Prize.

• The 2025 CBC Short Story Prize is currently accepting submissions

The shortlisted books are available in accessible format through the National Network for Equitable Library Services and the Centre for Equitable Library Access.

The shortlistwas chosen from more than 100 books by a jurychaired by author and producer Noah Richler and included writer and professor Kevin Chong and singer-songwriter Molly Johnson. When thejury was announced in January, it also included international jurors Dinaw Mengestu and Megha Majumdar, who have sincestepped down.

"Writers of fiction imagine, as a matter of course, what it means to be another: to be marginalized, to be suppressed, to be guilty to be joyful! or simply not seen," said the jury in a press statement."Their words sing lives, extol our virtues, nurse our injuries, expose our faultsand compel us to consider worlds about which we are curious and unknowing or had no idea existed."

Pushback from some authors

In July, more than 20 authors pulled their books from consideration for the prize, which is sponsored by Scotiabank, toprotest the bank's investment in Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence contractor. As of the short list announcement, 45 authors had signed aletterdemanding the Giller Foundation pressure Scotiabank to fully divest from Elbit Systems.

Scotiabankhad reduceditsholdings inElbitSystems by more than two-thirds as of Aug. 14,according tothe Canadian Press.

• Authors pull books from Giller Prize to protest Scotiabank's investment in Israeli defence contractor

The Giller organizers have removed Scotiabank's name from the prize. It still remains the prize's lead sponsor.

"Scotiabank continues to be the lead sponsor of the Giller Prize and we remain grateful for their support," said Giller Prizeexecutivedirector Elana Rabinovitch,in an email to CBC Books when the long list was announced. "The decision to remove their name was made so that the focus would be on these exceptional authors and their achievements,and to give the stage to Canada's best storytellers of today and tomorrow."

"Ultimately, more than ever, we want to ensure the prize stays true to its purpose: to celebrate the best in Canadian fiction and to give the stage to Canada's best storytellers. For us, that means ensuring the focus remains solely on the Prize and the art itself."

Scotiabank confirmed they are continuing to sponsor the Giller Foundation and the 2024 Giller Prize via email.

The 2024 winner will be announced on Nov. 18, 2024.

The 2024 Giller Prizeaward ceremony will be broadcast on Monday, Nov.18, at 9 p.m. ET (11:30 p.m. AT, 12 a.m. NT)on CBC TV and CBC Gem, with a livestream also available at 9 p.m. ET on CBC's YouTube channel. It will also bebroadcaston CBC Radio One and CBC Listen.

Last year's winner wasSarah Bernstein,for her novelStudy for Obedience. Bernsteinsigned thelettercalling for the prize to cut ties with Scotiabank.Omar El Akkad, who won the prize in 2021,also signed it.

• How one winner is reacting to the Scotiabank Giller Prize drama

Other past Giller Prize winners includeSuzette MayrforThe Sleeping Car Porter;Souvankham ThammavongsaforHow to Pronounce Knife;Esi EdugyanforWashington Black;Michael RedhillforBellevue Square;Margaret AtwoodforAlias Grace;Mordecai RichlerforBarney's Version;Alice MunroforRunaway;Andr AlexisforFifteen Dogs;andMadeleine ThienforDo Not Say We Have Nothing.

Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch founded the prize in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller, in 1994. Rabinovitchdied in 2017 at the age of 87.

You can learn more about the fiveshortlistedbooksbelow.

What I Know About Youbyric Chacour, translated byPablo Strauss

InWhat I Know About You,Tarek is on the right path: he'll be a doctor like his father, marry and have children. But when he falls for his patient's son, Ali, his life is turned upside down as he realizes his sexuality against a backdrop of political turmoil in 1960s Cairo. In the 2000s, Tarek is now a doctor in Montreal. When someone begins to write to him and about him, the past that he's been trying to forget comes back to haunt him.

• 64 Canadian fiction books to read in fall 2024

Chacour is a Montreal-based writer who was born to Egyptian parents and grew up between France and Quebec. In addition to writing, he works in the financial sector.What I Know About Youis his first book and was a bestseller in its French edition, winning many awards, including the Prix Femina.

Pablo Strauss has translated 12 works of fiction, several graphic novels and one screenplay. He was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for translation forThe Country Will Bring Us No Peace,SynapsesandThe Longest Year.His translation ofLe plongeurby Stephane Larue(The Dishwasherin English)won the 2020 Amazon First Novel Award. He lives in Quebec City.

Curiositiesby Anne Fleming

Curiositiescentres around an amateur historian who discovers an obscure memoir from 1600s England that explores a love that could not be explained in those times. Weaving together different fictional accounts, the novel tells thelife stories of Joan and Thomasina, the only two survivors of a village ravaged by the plague, and how they eventually find each other again.Thomasina, now Tom, navigatesthe world in boy's clothes and as a male,but faces a strugglewhen discovered, naked, by a member of the clergy.

Fleming is an author based in Victoria.Her books includePool-Hopping and Other Stories, which wasshortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. She has also writtena middle-grade novel,The Goat, which was a Junior Library Guild and White Ravens selection.

Prairie Edgeby Conor Kerr

InPrairie Edge,Isidore(Ezzy)Desjarlais and Grey Ginther live together in Grey's uncle's trailer, passing their time with cribbage and cheap beer. Grey iscynical of what she feels is a lazy and performative activist culture, while Grey is simply devoted to his distant cousin. So when Greyconcocts a scheme to set a herd of bison loose in downtown Edmonton, Ezzyis along for the ride one that has devastating, fatal consequences.

• Edmonton author Conor Kerr on what it's like to have your debut novel longlisted for the Giller Prize

Kerr is a Mtis/Ukrainian writer who has lived in a number of prairie towns and cities, including Saskatoon. He now lives in Edmonton. A2022 CBC Books writer to watch, his previous works include the novelsOld GodsandAvenue of Champions, whichwaslonglisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize, andwon the ReLit award the same year. Kerr currently teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta.

LISTEN | Conor Kerrdiscusses his novelPrairie EdgeonThe Next Chapter:

The Next Chapter18:53Bison roam Downtown Edmonton in Prairie Edge

Mtis-Ukrainian author Conor Kerr's latest novel takes inspiration from a real-life news story. In Prairie Edge, two distant Mtis cousins release bison into Edmonton's urban green spaces in an act of reclamation.

Heldby Anne Michaels

Weaving in historical figures and events, the mysterious, generations-spanning novelHeldbegins on a First World War battlefield near the River Aisne in 1917, where John lies in the falling snow, unable to move or feel his legs. When he returns hometo North Yorkshire with life-changing injuries, he reopens his photography business in an effort to move on with his life. The past proves harder to escape than hethoughtand John is haunted by ghosts that begin to surface in his photos with messages he struggles to decipher.

Heldis alsoshortlistedfor the 2024 Booker Prize.

• Anne Michaels latest bookHeldis a decades-spanning novel about desire, life and death

Michaelsis the winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Trillium Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has been shortlisted for theGovernor General's Literary Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Giller Prize.

LISTEN | Anne MichaelsonQ:

30:51Anne Michaels: Held, how she knows shes finished writing a book, and the unexpected reason shes so private

Anne Michaels is an award-winning Canadian poet and novelist who just published her long-awaited third novel, Held. The story spans 115 years and deals in themes familiar to her work: history, grief and the power of love. Anne tells Tom why it took nearly 15 years to write the novel, why shes so interested in writing about war, and why she chooses to live an intensely private life.

Peacocks of InstagrambyDeepa Rajagopalan

The collection of stories inPeacocks of Instagramprovidesa tapestry of the Indian diaspora. Tales of revenge, love, desire and family explore the intense ramifications of privilege, or lack thereof. Coffee shop and hotel housekeeping employees, engineers and children show us all of themselves, flaws and everything.

• CBC Book's writers to watch: 30 Canadians making their mark in 2024

Rajagopalan was the 2021 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award winner. Born to Indian parents in Saudi Arabia, she has lived across India, the United Statesand Canada. Her previous writing has appeared in publications such as theBristol Short Story Prize Anthology, the New Quarterly, Room and Arc. Rajagopalannow lives and works in Toronto.

LISTEN | Deepa Rajagopalandiscusses her short story collection onThe Next Chapter:

The Next Chapter0:00Truth telling and power dynamics in Peacocks of Instagram

Ontario-based author Deepa Rajagopalans debut short story collection features rule-breaking characters, savvy social media sellers and peafowl.