The Giller Prize turns 25: contenders say it's about more than winning $100K

The ScotiabankGiller Prize is a life-changer take it from Canadian writers.

The Giller, Canada's richest literary award, celebratesits 25thanniversary Mondayat a gala event in Toronto.Hostedfor a third time by comedian Rick Mercer, the ceremonyairs onCBC-TV, CBCRadio One and CBCBooks.ca.

Theshortlistedauthors and titles vying for the prize are:

• EsiEdugyan,Washington Black.
• PatrickdeWitt,French Exit.
• Thea Lim,An Ocean of Minutes.
• ricDupont,Songs for the Cold of Heart.
• SheilaHeti,Motherhood.

This year's finalists agree that the impact of the Giller cannot be overstated. And that goes beyond the $100,000 cash prize (boosted from the initial valueat the Giller's inception in 1994) that affords the winner the luxury of time to write a next novel.

It's also about exposure to new readers.Heralded for its now-famous Giller Effect, the prizehas long been valued as an importantbooster of book sales.

"Certainly as a past winner, I can say that this is a life-changing prize," said EsiEdugyan, who previously won in 2011 forHalf-Blood Blues. That novelhad a sales jump of 479per cent after her Giller win.

[The Giller Prize] can completely change the trajectory of your career.- Patrick deWitt

"You get a readership that you didn't have before. Certainly I didn't have a huge readership before.I had maybe a readership of fiveand it just turned everything around for me and brought a huge visibility."

In 2017, sales for the Giller finalists increasedan average of 433 per cent, whilethat year's winner Michael Redhill's Bellevue Square garneredan impressive 1,402 per centsales increase after his win, according to BookNetCanada, thenon-profit organization that compiles weekly book sales data in Canada.

This, even as the total number of fiction books sold in Canada fell by 4 per cent between2016 and 2017.

The Giller Effect "can completely change the trajectory of your career," notes nominee Patrick deWitt, who was previouslyshortlistedin 2011 forThe Sisters Brothers.

"There's nothingeven like a positive review there's nothing that's quite so thoroughly effective in terms of getting your work into the homes of people who wouldn't have come across your work otherwise."

In advance of tonight's prize, CBCNews asked the shortlistedauthors about their novelsat one of severalBetweenThe Pages: An Evening with theScotiabankGiller Prize Finalists reading events, which were held across the countryas well as in New York and London, England.

Describing her latest novel Washington Black as a departure from earlier work, Victoria-based writer Edugyansaidthe story being told necessitated taking some creative risks.

"Each book is its own beast and each book will let you know how to write it. It's always a different process."

Edugyantalks about relating to her main character in Washington Black,an11-year-old boy who escapes life asafield slave in Barbados:

'I can see myself in that boy:' Esi Edugyan on her Washington Black hero

6 years ago

Duration 1:16

The author on how she relates to the 11-year-old protagonist, who escapes life as a field slave in the cane fields of Barbados.

Havingjust seen his earlier bookThe Sisters Brothers released asa feature film, deWitt is currently working on a screenplay for his 2018 Giller finalist, the satirical novelFrench Exit.

While all his novels "are essentially character studies," Portland-based deWittsaidthat he hasn't written about these kinds of wealthy people before.

DeWittexplainswhy he created thethoroughly unlikable characterFrances Price inFrench Exitand how hehopes readers will come to understand her better:

'The back stories get me every time:' Patrick deWitt on writing difficult characters

6 years ago

Duration 1:07

The writer discusses his attempts to explore common ground with unpleasant characters.

Singaporean-born, Toronto-based authorThea Lim calls her bookAn Ocean of Minutes"atime travel storyand a love storythat can be read as migration literature."

In this debut novel, she combines an alternative America witha love story to tell a dystopian tale of social inequality.

For writers, she said, "the questions that we write aboutare really questions we don't have the answers to."

Speaking of love and loss, Lim discusses what she hopesreaders take away from An Ocean of Minutes:

'How is it we are able to love so recklesslessly?' Thea Lim ponders in An Ocean of Minutes

6 years ago

Duration 1:05

The first-time Giller finalist explores the human ability to love despite impermanence, heartbreak and loss.

"Even in French-speaking Quebec, people know what the Giller is about," saidQuebec writer ric Dupont, who has picked up his first Giller nomination for Songs for the Cold of Heart.

AnEnglish translation of his earlier French-language bestsellerLafianceamericaine, it's a novel Dupont saidhe hopes readers feel "they could call their home."

Dupont talks about the enormous empathy he feels for his charactersinSongs for the Cold of Heart andthe ordeals they face:

'They're all stories that have touched me:' ric Dupont on Songs for the Cold of Heart

6 years ago

Duration 0:55

The writer shares what he hopes readers will take from his bestselling, translated novel.

Toronto author Sheila Hetiis a 2018 Giller finalist for her eighth book,Motherhood. It'sa story thatgrapples with howexhausting it can be to spend years thinking about whether to become a mother.

"I want [readers] to know how hard it is and how unpleasant it is to ask that question," she explains.

In Motherhood, Sheila Hetiexplores a woman'sthought process as she tries to decide whether to have a child:

Sheila Heti on getting into readers' minds with Motherhood

6 years ago

Duration 1:01

'The book is a really sort of a portrait of a consciousness,' says the 2018 Giller finalist.