Six Star Magazine Six Star Magazine 2012 | Page 11

L

ooking for something good to

read? Look no further than the

Scotiabank Giller Prize winners

for the best in Canadian writing.

2012
Scotiabank
Giller Prize
Winner

It’s Canada’s most prestigious
literary honour. Developer Jack
Rabinovitch started the awards
in 1994 in honour of his late wife,
pioneering book editor and literary
journalist Doris Giller, who passed
away from cancer the year before.
It endowed an annual $25,000 cash
award, the country’s largest literary
prize. Scotiabank’s sponsorship
increased the winner’s amount to
$50,000 in 2005, and provided an

Calgary-based humourist Will
Ferguson’s 419, a bleak mystery
centred on the dark world of
Nigerian Internet scams, was
recently named winner of the
2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the
nation’s most prestigious literary

(scotiabankgillerprize.ca)
The Giller’s launch coincided with
increased international recognition
for Canadian authors. Alice Munro,
Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje
and Mordecai Richler won readers
around the world as Canadian writing came into its own.
In large part, the Scotiabank Giller Prize is responsible
for this explosion of talent and exposure and has become
the most important honour for emerging Canadian literary
talent. Check out past winners. If you pick up one of their
books, you are guaranteed a great read. This year’s winner
was just announced at Toronto’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel on
Oct. 30, 2012, see sidebar for details. We thank the Giller
organization for assistance with this article.

purse, the most valuable.
“I’d like to thank my longsuffering editor and Penguin
Canada for supporting my

the Giller Prize gala at Toronto’s
Ritz-Carlton Hotel in full highland
regalia, including kilt, dirk
and sporran.

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