Happy Holidays from the Scotiabank Giller Prize

December 21, 2021

Dear friends,

Twenty twenty-one may go down in history as the fulcrum of new artistic expression, one where people discovered unique and creative ways of bringing arts and culture to life, all while enduring the second year of a global pandemic.

We launched The Giller Book Club in January 2021 as well as our Giller Power Panels. The book club paired an author from the previous year’s longlist with a writer, critic, former jury member, or scholar. Hundreds of people tuned in to these live conversations. Clearly, Canadian readers wanted to know more about their favourite authors and what goes on behind the scenes of writing a novel.

Our Giller Power Panels pulled together creatives with a moderator each month to discuss pressing issues of our time. We covered topics like institutional bias in publishing BIPOC writers, writing while female, indigenous identity through writing, and many more.

Both The Giller Book Club and Giller Power Panels will return in January 2022.

We returned to a LIVE event in November! How thrilling it was to be in a room with people again. Please find some sights and sounds from the evening on our website. The excitement was palpable and the crowd, while smaller in size, was no less exuberant. We plan to do it all over again next year.

Meanwhile, we continue to reckon with social and racial injustice displayed in so many institutional forms and expressions. During this time in history, we cannot ignore the importance of bringing diverse writers and voices into the larger arena.

Along with the launch of the book club and power panels, we doubled our efforts in highlighting books published in Canada between October 2020 and September 2021 on our 2021 Craving CanLit page. The Between the Pages event in Toronto was a welcome respite to a relentless stream of COVID news, spotlighting Jael Richardson in conversation with the five finalists.

We have many more fun things planned for 2022 including more book giveaways, talks with authors, and other surprises along the way.

We will announce our brand-spanking-new jury in January – stay tuned!

Thank you for your support, feedback, and excitement surrounding the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Please stay safe and happy holidays!

Elana Rabinovitch
Executive Director
Scotiabank Giller Prize