#GILLERPRIZE: SUZETTE MAYR WINS TOP HONOURS AT THE 2022 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE

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, taking home $100,000 courtesy of Scotiabank.

The announcement was made at a black-tie dinner and award ceremony hosted by poet, artist and performer Rupi Kaur and award-winning actress and producer Sarah Gadon, attended by over 300 guests. The gala was broadcast live commercial-free presented by Scotia Wealth Management on CBC, CBC Radio One, and streamed live on CBCBooks.ca.

This year, the Prize celebrates its 29th anniversary.

The remaining finalists, listed below, will each receive $10,000:

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 longlist, shortlist, and winner of the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize were selected by an esteemed five-member jury panel: Canadian authors Kaie Kellough, Casey Plett (Jury Chair), and Waubgeshig Rice, joined by American authors Katie Kitamura and Scott Spencer. On September 6, the jury narrowed down the 138 submitted works to 14 to create the longlist. The shortlist of five was selected on September 27. And just this very morning, the jury met to choose tonight’s winner.

Of the winning book, 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.”

Suzette Mayr is the author of the novels Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall, Monoceros, Moon Honey, The Widows, and Venous Hum. The Widows was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean region, and has been translated into German. Moon Honey was shortlisted for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s Best First Book and Best Novel Awards. Monoceros won the ReLit Award, the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize, was longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize, and shortlisted for a Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction, and the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction. She and her partner live in a house in Calgary close to a park teeming with coyotes.

Listen to CBC Radio’s q tomorrow for an interview with Suzette Mayr and relive the gala at CBCBooks.ca.

Ask the author your questions about her book during a live Twitter chat hosted by @GillerPrize on Thursday, November 10, at 2 p.m. ET using the hashtag #GillerWinner.

More here at www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca.