Wayne Johnston’s novel, The Novice of Holloway Hall, has been longlisted for the 2026 Giller Prize.

WAYNE JOHNSTON was born and raised in Goulds, Newfoundland. His #1 nationally bestselling novels include First Snow, Last Light; The Custodian of Paradise; The Navigator of New York; and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. Baltimore’s Mansion, a memoir about his father and grandfather, won the inaugural Charles Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, published in 1998, was nominated for sixteen national and international awards including the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, and was a Canada Reads finalist defended by Justin Trudeau. In 2011, Johnston was awarded the Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award honouring the work of a writer in mid-career. In 2023, his memoir Jennie’s Boy won The Stephen Leacock Gold Medal for Humour and was also a Canada Reads finalist, in 2025.

What’s the first piece of writing you had published?

An excerpt from what became my first novel, The Story of Bobby O’Malley, was published in The Fiddlehead.

When did you first come up with the idea for your book?

The Novice of Holloway Hall began in my head when, as a child, I overheard my father tell my mother about a woman whose life was very much like that of my main character, Vivvy Holloway.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

When I was eight and convalescing from one of the childhood illnesses that kept me out of school for years, I read a biography of Mark Twain. By the time I was halfway through, I knew that I, if I made it to adulthood, I would be a writer.

Did anything surprise you when writing your longlisted book?

I began the book, I imagined it as a multi-generation story of an entire family. It became one week in the life of one member of that family. That surprised me a lot!

Who’s your favourite character in your longlisted book and why?

My favourite character in the book is one who is talked about by the other characters but never appears on stage.

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