TORONTO — Conor Kerr was bird hunting in rural Saskatchewan when he learned his book, "Prairie Edge," had been shortlisted for the Giller Prize.
He's one of five finalists named Wednesday for the prestigious literary award, which goes to the best work of Canadian fiction published in English in the previous year.
"My phone's been cutting in and out all day," Kerr said, so the congratulations have come piecemeal – perhaps an anticlimactic end to a big couple of weeks that also saw him shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
He said he's thrilled his crime thriller about two distant Metis cousins planning an attention-grabbing Land Back protest is getting recognition.
"It's just so nice to see my book out in the world and getting some love."
The short list also features poet-novelist Anne Michaels, whose multi-generational saga "Held" is also a finalist for the Booker Prize, based in the U.K.
The Giller finalists also include Éric Chacour's "What I Know About You," translated by Pablo Strauss, about an Egyptian doctor straining under the strictures of his family's expectations. That book also made the short list for the Writers' Trust fiction prize.
Deepa Rajagopalan's "Peacocks of Instagram" is the only short story collection on the list. The book features 14 works about the Indian diaspora.
Rounding out the short list is Anne Fleming for her centuries-spanning novel "Curiosities," a queer love story partly set in the 1600s.
"It's very gratifying to see the book make the short list," Fleming said by phone Wednesday. "It helps me know that the book is being received by readers the way that I want it to be."
The Giller, worth $100,000, has been at the centre of a maelstrom in the literary community over its lead sponsor Scotiabank's investment in an Israeli arms manufacturer. Dozens of authors have pulled their books from consideration for the prize over Scotiabank and other Giller sponsors including Indigo, whose CEO Heather Reisman is a co-founder of HESEG Foundation, which offers financial support to people who join the Israeli army.
Both Kerr and Fleming declined to comment on criticisms the Giller faces, though Fleming said it's part of a broader conversation.
"We're in the middle of an important shakeup about where funding for the arts comes from. It's not just the Giller. It extends far beyond that, and it's not just here," Fleming said.
Some of those who withdrew their books from consideration went on to become finalists for other top literary awards, including Sheung-King, whose novel "Batshit Seven" is in the running for the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and Canisia Lubrin, whose book "Code Noir" made the short list for that prize and is a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction.
Two of the five jurors who had signed on to choose this year's finalists also cut ties with the Giller, and the selection process went on with only three Canadian judges.
Until last month the Giller was known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize, but organizers dropped the bank from the award's name when they released the long list in an effort to keep the focus on the authors.
Avik Jain Chatlani, an author who withdrew his book from Giller eligibility and who has been advocating for others to do the same, said he is focused on a different set of writers – those in Gaza, whose homes have been under attack for a year now.
"Every author should be joining this boycott," he said. "They should be on the correct side of this picket line not just to prove a point but to at least withdraw support from these very harmful institutions and to show solidarity with the surviving writers and surviving readers in Gaza, in occupied Palestine, in Lebanon."
Writers who love literature don't enter this industry to win awards, he added.
Ian Williams, who won the prize for his novel "Reproduction" in 2019 and was chair of the Giller jury in 2023, said pulling out of the prize is a big ask of authors seeking to make a living.
"I want platforms for writers. We're already competing against other forms of media that are louder and more popular," Williams said in an interview last month about his new book "What I Mean to Say: Remaking Conversation in Our Time."
"And so it kind of pains me that as writers we have to bear the cost for other people's decisions. The writers themselves should not be bearing the cost for Scotiabank's decision in a boardroom somewhere."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2024.
Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press