Since 1994, the Scotiabank Giller Prize has been celebrating Canadian literature. Over the years, some of these nominated novels have been turned into films and enjoyed by international audiences. Here is our round-up of Scotiabank Giller Prize nominated books that have been turned into films.
Aminatta Forna is an award-winning novelist, essayist and memoirist. Her novels include Happiness, The Hired Man and The Memory of Love, which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Aidoo Snyder Prize and Germanyâs Literaturpreis. Her work has been translated into more than 20 languages and her essays on society, politics and culture have appeared in Freemanâs, Granta, The Guardian, The Nation and The New York Review of Books. Forna is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a recipient of a Windham Campbell Award and was made OBE in the Queenâs New Yearâs Honours 2017. She currently lives in Arlington, Virginia.
JosĂ© Teodoro is the author of several plays, including Mote, Cloudless, The Tourist and Slowly, an exchange is taking place. Teodoroâs play Steps was recently published in Playwrights Canada Pressâ anthology Long Story Short. He has worked as story editor on acclaimed films including Hugh Gibsonâs documentary feature The Stairs, winner of the TFCAâs 2016 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, and Lina RodrĂguezâs Señoritas and This Time Tomorrow. Teodoro is currently developing a book of conversations with Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler entitled Nothing But Time. He lives in Toronto.
Donna Bailey Nurse is a leading literary critic, editor of the ground breaking Revival: An Anthology of Black Canadian Writing and author of Whatâs A Black Critic to Do. A former member of the Toronto Arts Councilâs Literary Arts Committee, Bailey Nurse has curated reading series in conjunction with the Toronto Public Library and the Art Gallery of Ontario. She is a contributor to Macleanâs, The Walrus and The Literary Review of Canada, and a columnist for The Next Chapter on CBC Radio. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. She lives in Pickering, Ontario.
Aleksandar (Sasha) Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, The Book of My Lives, and The Making of Zombie Wars. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a âgenius grantâ from the MacArthur Foundation, the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, the PEN/ W.G. Sebald Award, 2012 USA Fellowship, and most recently 2017 PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Oral History. He teaches at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Randy Boyagoda is the author of five books, including three works of fiction. His debut novel, Governor of the Northern Province, was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2006. His second novel, Beggarâs Feast, was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and selected as a New York Times Book Review Editorâs Choice.
The 2019 jury members are: Canadian authors Donna Bailey Nurse and Randy Boyagoda (jury chair), Canadian playwright José Teodoro, Scottish-Sierra Leonean author Aminatta Forna and Bosnian-American author Aleksandar (Sasha) Hemon.
Esi Edugyan has been named the winner of the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel Washington Black, published by Patrick Crean Editions. The announcement was made this evening at a black-tie dinner and award ceremony hosted by Canadian comedian, television personality and author Rick Mercer and attended by nearly 500 members of the publishing, media and arts communities.
Please join us in bringing the Jack Rabinovitch Reading Room to life. As we approach the 25th Anniversary of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Toronto Public Library Foundation is now accepting donations from anyone who would like to be part of this innovative literary space, and contribute a gift in Jackâs memory.
Lisa Moore is the acclaimed author of the novels Caught, February, and Alligator. Caught was a finalist for Rogers Writersâ Trust Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize and is now a major CBC television series starring Allan Hawco. February won CBCâs Canada Reads competition, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and was named a New Yorker Best Book of the Year, and a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book. Alligator was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the Commonwealth Writersâ Prize (Canada and the Caribbean), and was a national bestseller. Her story collection Open was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a national bestseller. She lives in St. Johnâs, Newfoundland.
Lisa Moore has been selected for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel Something for Everyone.