November 10, 2014 (Toronto, ON) – Sean Michaels has been named the winner of the 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize for Us Conductors, published by Random House Canada.
The announcement was made at a black-tie dinner and award ceremony hosted by Rick Mercer, attended by nearly 500 members of the publishing, media and arts communities. CBC Television is the broadcaster for the gala.
This year the prize celebrates its twenty-first anniversary.
A shortlist of six authors and their books was announced on October 6, 2014. Those finalists are:
- David
Bezmozgis for his novel The Betrayers published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Frances
Itani for her book Tell published by HarperCollins Publishers
Ltd
- Sean
Michaels for his novel, Us Conductors published by Random House Canada
- Heather
O'Neill for her novel The Girl Who Was
Saturday Night published by
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Miriam
Toews for her novel All My Puny Sorrows published by Alfred A.
Knopf Canada
- Padma
Viswanathan for her book The Ever After of Ashwin
Rao published by
Random House Canada
Of the winning book, the jury wrote:
"Michaels' book is based on the life of Lev Thermen, the Russian-born inventor of the Theremin, the most ethereal of musical instruments. As the narrative shifts countries and climates, from the glittery brightness of New York in the 1920s to the leaden cold of the Soviet Union under Stalin, the grace of Michaels's style makes these times and places seem entirely new. He succeeds at one of the hardest things a writer can do: he makes music seem to sing from the pages of a novel."
SEAN MICHAELS was born in Stirling, Scotland, in 1982. Raised in Ottawa, he eventually settled in Montreal, founding Said the Gramophone, one of the earliest music blogs. He has since spent time in Edinburgh and Krakow, written for the Guardian and McSweeney's, toured with rock bands, searched the Parisian catacombs for Les UX, and received two National Magazine Awards.
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