- Johanna Skibsrud has been named the 2010 winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel The Sentimentalists, published by Gaspereau Press. The announcement was made live on Bravo!, BookTelevision and CTV.ca at a black-tie dinner and award ceremony that drew nearly 500 members of the publishing, media and arts communities. Hosted by CTV's Seamus O'Regan, the Scotiabank GILLER PRIZE gala premieres on CTV tomorrow at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. ET, and is now available on demand on CTV.ca (on-demand broadcast and complete broadcast listings are available at giller.CTV.ca).
The largest annual literary prize in the country, the Scotiabank Giller Prize awards $50,000 to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English and $5,000 to each of the finalists. A shortlist of five authors and their books was announced on October 5, 2010. Those finalists were:
- David Bergen for his novel The Matter with Morris, published by
Phyllis Bruce Books/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Alexander MacLeod for his short story collection Light Lifting,
published by Biblioasis
- Sarah Selecky for her short story collection This Cake is for the
Party, published by Thomas Allen Publishers
- Johanna Skibsrud for her novel The Sentimentalists, published by
Gaspereau Press
- Kathleen Winter for her novel Annabel, published by House of Anansi
Press
The shortlist and ultimate winner were selected by an esteemed jury panel made up of Canadian broadcaster and journalist Michael Enright, American writer and professor Claire Messud and award-winning UK author Ali Smith. The shortlist was chosen from 98 books submitted for consideration by 38 publishing houses from every region of the country.
Of the winning book, the jury remarked:
"The Sentimentalists charts the painful search by a dutiful daughter to learn - and more importantly, to learn to understand - the multi-layered truth which lies at the moral core of her dying father's life. Something happened to Napoleon Haskell during his tour of duty in Vietnam that changed his life and haunted the rest of his days. At the behest of his daughters, he moves from a trailer in North Dakota to a small lakeside town in Ontario where his family can only watch as his past slips away in a descending fog of senility. The writing here is trip-wire taut as the exploration of guilt, family and duty unfolds."
Johanna Skibsrud's first poetry collection, Late Nights With Wild Cowboys, was published in 2008 by Gaspereau Press and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award. Originally from Scotsburn, Nova Scotia, Skibsrud now lives in Montreal.
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