A longlist of 12 titles has been unveiled for the C$100,000 (about US$76,810) Scotiabank Giller Prize, which recognizes excellence in Canadian fiction. The shortlist will be announced October 1 and a winner named November 19. This year's Scotiabank Giller Prize longlisted titles are:
Zolitude by Paige Cooper
French Exit by Patrick DeWitt
Songs for the Cold of Heart by Eric Dupont, translated by Peter McCambridge
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage
Motherhood by Sheila Heti
Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper
An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim
Something for Everyone by Lisa Moore
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
Vi by Kim Thúy, translated by Sheila Fischman
Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
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The winners and runnersup of the 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prizes are:
Fiction winner: Salt Houses by Hala Alyan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), a "heartbreaking debut novel [that] follows three generations of a Palestinian family as they are uprooted by one military clash after another, giving up their home, their land, and their story as they know it and scattering throughout the world. A lyrical examination of displacement, belonging, and family, the book humanizes an age-old conflict, illuminating the experiences of all refugees and challenging readers to confront that most devastating of all truths: you can't go home again."
Fiction runnerup: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Grand Central), which "brings the historical sweep of Dickens and Tolstoy to the saga of four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family who, exiled from a homeland they never knew, fight to control their destinies in 20th-century Japan. As they encounter both catastrophes and great joy, the novel's exceptional protagonists confront enduring questions of faith, family, and identity."
Nonfiction winner: We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World/PRH), a collection of essays. "Revisiting each year of the Obama administration through Coates's own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, the book offers a vital account of eight years that began with great hope of black progress and ended with an election and vicious backlash that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era."
Nonfiction runnerup: Reading with Patrick by Michelle Kuo (Random House), a memoir in which the author, "the child of Taiwanese immigrants, shares the story of her complicated but rewarding mentorship of Patrick Browning, a teenaged student from one of the poorest counties in the U.S., and his remarkable literary and personal awakening."