In its coverage of last night’s Giller bash, the Toronto Star has a short sidebar about a goofy protest staged by Margaret Atwood and husband Graeme Gibson. According to the Star, the literary duo said “no thanks” to the Four Season’s fancy menu of tuna tartar and beef tenderloin, and instead ate homemade dinners they’d brought along in a gym bag.

The reason: They were protesting the Four Seasons’ role in a massive resort development in Grenada that threatens an endangered species: the Grenada dove.

“Until there is a fair resolution of the dispute over the kind of resort being built in Grenada, we cannot accept food or drink from the Four Seasons,” explained Gibson, who arrived at the event carrying what appeared to be a gym bag but in fact contained their meal.

And so Canada’s most famous literary couple munched on homemade spinach and cucumber, and drank their own sake, while others at their table, including former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, ate beef and drank wine. […] Four Seasons CEO Isadore Sharp sat at a nearby table.

Not to be cynical, but if Atwood and Gibson really wanted to show solidarity with the Grenada dove, wouldn’t it have behooved them to boycott the ceremony altogether? They could have put out a press release explaining their absence and got the same amount of coverage. But by picnicking they managed to make a show of their anti-establishment credentials and still retain pride of place at the literary status-symbol night of the year. That takes some sort of genius….

As you may have heard, the annual Scotiabank Giller Prize was handed out last night. Q&Q will have a full report on the evening on our News page, but for now, here’s some shots of the gala.

Above: Authors Linda Spalding and Michael Ondaatje.

More below the fold… (more…)

It’s safe to say that last year’s Giller Prize-winner, Vincent Lam’s Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, caught some pundits off-guard. (Ahem.) This year, the peanut gallery has kept curiously mum on who will take home the $40,000 prize (which, of course, is being awarded tonight in Toronto).

Except, that is, for a trio of Globe and Mail panelists made up of “Review”-section editor Andrew Gorham and writers Sandra Martin and James Adams, who say unanimously that the Giller should go to Ondaatje for Divisadero. Only Andrews thinks the prize won’t go to Ondaatje – he’s laying his bet on Elizabeth Hay’s Late Nights on Air. (Hay seems to have captured the popular vote, too.)

Literary merit aside, Gorham thinks the timing is right for a Hay win: “It feels like this is Hay’s moment because she has been building in our literary landscape with each book that she publishes,” he says.

Meanwhile, the Toronto Star teases readers with a recent headline — “Which book is likely to win the Giller?” — but finds the question too hot to handle (so does CBCNews.ca, for that matter). Instead of giving a straightforward answer, publishing reporter Vit Wagner coughs up some BookNet Canada sales data (for Quillblog’s take, see here) and simply says:

Winning a Scotiabank Giller Prize or a Governor General’s Award is guaranteed to boost the sales of any author, with relatively unsung writers having the most to gain.

The National Post hardly raises the bar, leading its Giller coverage with this eye-opener:

Novelists tend to command unnatural facility with language and possess keen powers of observation and a high tolerance for solitude. Talking to them can be intimidating.

This Quillblogger, however, is reserving speculation on who will take home the Giller in light of news out of France that the Renaudot prize — the country’s second most prestigious literary contest — was awarded to an author who wasn’t even on the shortlist.

But the biggest surprise of today’s announcements, not least to the novelist himself, was the award of the Renaudot prize to Daniel Pennac. Chagrins d’École was not even among the five titles selected for the final round of the award, which is second only to the Goncourt in importance to French readers.

“It’s a complete surprise,” he declared to journalists as he arrived late for the celebration at the Drouant restaurant in Paris. “I expected it even less since I wasn’t even on the programme,” he added. “There must have been something amusing happening [on the panel],” he suggested.

While a similar upset is unlikely at the well-scripted Gillers, the French shenanigans bode well for seemingly overlooked titles like, say, Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negros.

To brush up on all the Giller nominees, see Q&Q’s reviews:

Effigy by Alissa York
A Secret Between Us by Daniel Poliquin (trans. Donald Winkler)
The Assassin’s Song by M.G. Vassanji
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje

It’s participation time. With the Scotiabank Giller Prize coming up in less than a week, we’d like to ask our readers (a) which book should win the prize, (b) which one will win, and what the hell, (c) which book should be in the running but isn’t.

You can weigh in on the comments field – and if you’re worried about offending some author/friend/colleague, remember that our blog allows for anonymous comments. Or you can pick a pseudonym like “Darth Reader.”

And here’s a reminder as to the five Giller nominees:

• Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay (M&S)
• Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (M&S)
• A Secret Between Us by Daniel Poliquin; Donald Winkler, trans. (D&M)
• Effigy by Alissa York (Random House Canada)
• The Assassin’s Song by M.G. Vassanji (Doubleday Canada)