November
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The Giller Prize@The Four Seasons Hotel-Mon.,Nov.7th,2022
By A.J.Lam
Suzette Mayr has been named the winner of the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel,The Sleeping Car Porter, published by Coach House Books. Suzette Mayr not only secured the most prestigious Canadian literary prize but also $100, 000.
This year’s 29th anniversary glitzy black-tie gala dinner and award ceremony at the ultra-luxurious Four Seasons Hotel in ritzy Yorkville of Toronto, was hosted by poet, artist and performer Rupi Kaur and award-winning actorSarah Gadon. The gala ceremony was broadcast live Monday, November 7, 2022, on CBC, CBC Radio One, and streamed live onCBCBooks.ca.
The other finalists, who will receive $10,000 each, were
- Kim Fu for her short story collection,Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century, published by Coach House Books
- Rawi Hage for his short story collection,Stray Dogs, published by Knopf Canada
- Tsering Yangzom Lama for her novel, We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies, published by McClelland & Stewart
- Noor Naga for her novel, If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, published by Graywolf Press
The 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury panelconsisted of: Canadian authors Kaie Kellough,Casey Plett (Jury Chair), and Waubgeshig Rice, plus American authors Katie Kitamuraand Scott Spencer.
Of The Sleeping Porter, the jury wrote:
“Suzette Mayr brings to life –believably, achingly, thrillingly –a whole world contained in a passenger train moving across the Canadian vastness, nearly one hundred years ago. As only occurs in the finest historical novels, every page in The Sleeping Car Porter feels alive and immediate –and eerily contemporary. The sleeping car porter in this sleek, stylish novel is named R.T. Baxter –called George by the people upon whom he waits, as is every other Black porter. Baxter’s dream of one day going to school to learn dentistry coexists with his secret life as a gay man, and in Mayr’s triumphant novel we follow him not only from Montreal to Calgary, but into and out of the lives of an indelibly etched cast of supporting characters, and, finally, into a beautifully rendered radiance.”
The prestigious annual Giller Prize, named in honour of the late literary journalist Doris Giller, and founded by the late Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in 1994, selects the ultimate in rich and diverse Canadian fiction, either novels or collections of short stories. Starting in 2005, the Giller Prize teamed up with Scotiabank, a leading Canadian bank with a large international presence, allowing the Giller Prize award to be substantially increased to $100,000 for the winner.
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