Public to vote on Giller longlist: UPDATED

This year, the Scotiabank Giller Prize is moving from CTV, its official broadcast partner for the past five years, to CBC. In conjunction with the move, the CBC has announced a new Readers’ Choice contest, which will allow the public to nominate one book for inclusion on the longlist, to be announced on Sept. 6.

The details of the new contest are up on the CBC website:

This year you can make a difference by nominating a book for the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. Explore this year’s eligible books and let us know which one you believe deserves to be considered for the $50,000 award.

CBC Books will tally your nominations. The book that garners the most nominations will be added to the official longlist, which will be announced on Sept. 6, 2011. Submit your selection by filling out the CBC Books nomination form by midnight ET on Aug. 28.

A list of eligible books is available on the Scotiabank Giller Prize website.

The inclusion of a public participation aspect in this year’s Giller prize echoes the CBC’s approach with last year’s Canada Reads broadcast, which asked the public to nominate titles they considered to be the “essential” Canadian novel of the past 10 years. The Giller prize already has an official jury, made up of Canadian novelist Annabel Lyon, U.S. novelist Howard Norman, and U.K. novelist Andrew O’Hagan. There is no indication who will get credit should the public choose a book the jury already determined would be on the longlist. In addition, not all of the eligible books will be available by Aug. 28, so the public is in effect being asked to vote on books they may not have read.

UPDATE: Material in this post has been updated. Two of this year’s Giller jurors were listed incorrectly. Quillblog regrets the error.

“Brooding on Muskoka chairs”: Brit Giller judge on Canadian literature

In the Sept. 12 edition of the Financial Times, British critic and novelist Victoria Glendinning, who sits on this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize jury (which announced its longlist yesterday), generously shared her thoughts on Canadian literature.

Following the claim that reading 100 works of Canadian literature was a “life enhancing experience,” Glendinning dives into a scathing critique of Canadian culture, publishing, and literature.

Some highlights from the article, via the Globe Books Blog:

The Canadian for gutter is “eavestrough” which is picturesque. Everyone is wearing a “tuque” or “toque” which in English-English suggests the lofty headgear worn by Queen Mary but is actually a little woolly hat. And in the holiday cottages among Ontario’s northern lakes and forests–evidently, the prime setting for emotional turmoil–they sit, brooding, on Muskoka chairs. (Look those up on the net.)

…

Apart from brilliant Giller contestants, there are … “unbelievably dreadful” ones. It seems in Canada that you only have to write a novel to get grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and from your provincial Arts Council, who are also thanked. Complaints were once voiced that most shortlisted Giller novels emanated from just three big-name publishers, all owned by Bertelsmann, and that virtually every winner lived in the Toronto area. Now, many of the submitted authors, and their rugged subject matter, hail from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland. That’s maybe because small publishers too are now subsidised, and they proliferate. If you want to get your novel published, be Canadian. 

Now, tell us what you really think, Glendinning!