Introducing the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize Jury
January 24, 2023
It is with great pleasure and pride that we announce the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury, an extraordinary constellation of readers and writers selected to mark the 30th anniversary of the Prize.
Chairing the jury panel is the incomparable and award-winning writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, Ian Williams. Ian won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2019 for his arresting novel, Reproduction. He is currently a tenured professor at The University of Toronto.
Joining Ian on the jury are fellow Canadian writers Sharon Bala and Brian Thomas Isaac. Sharon’s debut novel, The Boat People, won the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and the 2020 Newfoundland & Labrador Book Award, has been listed for a torrent of awards and prizes and is published worldwide in translation.
Brian Thomas Isaac exploded onto the scene in 2022 with his bestselling debut novel, All the Quiet Places. Aside from being longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and winning the Indigenous Voices Award, his career includes bull riding, bricklaying and working in the Northern Alberta oil fields.
Rounding out the international component for the 30th anniversary jury panel are Rebecca Makkai and Neel Mukherjee. Rebecca was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Her novel The Great Believers won the ALA Carnegie Medal, the Stonewall Book Award, the Clark Prize, the L.A. Times Book Prize and was one of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2018.
Neel Mukherjee is the author of several works, most recently Avian, his book for the Cahiers Series. He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and has won the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
This year’s jury panel is composed of the finest minds, readers with a first-rate grasp of the true breadth and scope of genre-bending Canadian literature, its global range and commutation of literary conventions.
Audible.ca will provide each jury member with a complimentary one-year membership to listen to available submissions, as well as titles by other Canadian writers. For all listeners, Audible.ca has a dedicated Scotiabank Giller Prize page for easy discovery of some of Canada’s most exciting literary voices.
Kobo will yet again be providing the jury with an eReader for their reading duties. This year, Kobo will be donating 5 Kobo Sage devices. Kobo Sage delivers every feature Kobo offers in one sleek package, plus Bluetooth® wireless technology. The luxurious 8″ HD flush E Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen delivers superior performance and depth of contrast, with zero glare.
The longlist will be presented at an event in early September, with the shortlist announcement mid-October in Toronto. The winner will be named during a nationally televised black-tie dinner and awards ceremony honouring the finalists in Toronto in November.
Submissions are now being accepted. The 2023 submission package, including updated details, can be found at scotiabankgillerprize.ca/submission-guidelines. The first submission deadline for books published between October 1, 2022 and February 28, 2023 is February 17, 2023.
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