Giller Prize

History

From 1994 to 2004, the prize included a bronze figure created by artist Yehouda Chaki. The current prize includes a trophy designed by Soheil Mosun.

On September 22, 2005, the Giller Prize established an endorsement deal with Canadian bank Scotiabank. The total prize package for the award was increased to $50,000, with $40,000 presented to the winning author and $2,500 each for the other four shortlisted nominees. The award's official name was also changed at that time to the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

In 2006, the prize instituted a longlist for the first time, comprising no fewer than 10 and no more than 15 titles. In 2008, the prize fund was increased to $50,000 for the winning author and $5,000 for each of the authors on the shortlist. In 2014, the prize package was expanded further, to $100,000 for the winning author and $10,000 for each of the shortlisted authors. If a translated work wins the award, however, then the prize money is split, with 70 per cent going to the original author and 30 per cent going to the translator.

In 2015, the jury was expanded from three to five people.

Over the years, the Giller Prize has run different promotions to extend its recognition and support of Canadian literary talent to highlight all Canadian fiction eligible for the prize in a given publishing year. For example, the Craving CanLit feature (previously called Crazy for CanLit), which highlights the initial list of all titles that are under consideration for the award's longlist and shortlist nominations, seeks to publicize Canadian literature by engaging readers and writers through social media tools. Another online initiative started in 2021, the Giller Book Club, featuring virtual author readings and interviews, got off to a bumpy start when the inaugural offering was the victim of zoombombing.

Since Rabinovitch's death in 2017, the Giller Prize Foundation is now overseen by his daughter Elana Rabinovitch.

Cultural debate

Following Vincent Lam's win of the Giller Prize in 2006, Geist columnist Stephen Henighan criticized the Giller Prize for its apparent dependency for its shortlists and winners on books published by Bertelsmann AG-affiliated Canadian publishing houses, all of which are based in Toronto.

Arguing that the trend towards centralization of Canadian publishing in Toronto has led to a monopolistic control of the Giller Prize by Bertelsmann and its authors, Henighan wrote, "Year after year the vast majority of the books shortlisted for the Giller came from the triumvirate of publishers owned by the Bertelsmann Group: Knopf Canada, Doubleday Canada and Random House Canada. Like the three musketeers, this trio is in fact a quartet: Bertelsmann also owns 25 percent of McClelland & Stewart, and now manages M&S’s marketing." Henighan added that all of the Giller Prize winners from 1994 to 2004, with the exception of Mordecai Richler, lived within a two-hour drive of downtown Toronto.

The article raised debate within the media and in the wider public over the credibility of the Giller Prize. Henighan revisited that article in 2015.

In 2010, there was much talk about how small presses dominated that year’s shortlist. Montrealer Johanna Skibsrud won the Giller Prize that year for her novel The Sentimentalists, published by independent Gaspereau Press. The company produces books using a 1960s offset printing press and hand-bindery equipment. As a result, while there was great demand for the book in the marketplace, the publisher had trouble keeping up with production. In the end, they turned to Douglas & McIntyre, a large West-coast publisher, to print copies of the book.

The Gaspereau situation prompted an examination within the cultural community about what makes a book and the nature of publishing and marketing books. The book also became the top-selling title for Kobo eReaders, outselling even George W. Bush's memoir Decision Points.

In November 2023, a month after the October 7th escalation of the Gaza War, pro-Palestinian protestors interrupted the Giller ceremony to object to Scotiabank's sponsorship of the prize, given the bank's reported $500m investment in Israel-based arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. In response to their arrests, an open letter was circulated in solidarity with the protestors, which was signed by more than 2,000 people, including past winners, finalists, and jurors of the prize. By March 2024, Scotiabank had divested nearly half of its stake in Elbit Systems.

In July 2024, 19 authors presented a letter withdrawing their books from consideration for that year's prize and demanding the foundation pressure Scotiabank's full divestment from Elbit Systems, as well as ending the sponsorships by the Azrieli Foundation, Indigo, and Audible over their ties to Israel. The letter was also signed by two previous winners of the prize. Dinaw Mengestu–who was originally set to serve on the jury that year–resigned in response; the following week, the other international juror, Megha Majumdar, did as well. In the first quarter of 2024, Scotiabank further divested from Elbit Systems by more than $100-million; this makes for a total divestment over the previous year of more than three quarters of its total stake.

Covering the controversy, Marsha Lederman of The Globe and Mail noted that several other Canadian literary awards, including the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, were not being targeted despite also being sponsored by companies with financial ties to Israel, and suggested that the primary reason for focusing solely on the Giller was that founder Jack Rabinovitch had been Jewish.

The 2024 ceremony followed a different format than previous years, being taped for later rebroadcast rather than being aired live, although organizers and the CBC attributed this to increasingly common practice for awards ceremonies (such as the Canadian Screen Awards, which have also been broadcast in recent years as tape-delayed one-hour "highlights" specials rather than full live ceremonies) rather than the protests. Despite this, protestors still picketed the hotel where the ceremony was taking place.

Scotiabank's sponsorship of the prize ended in February 2025. In July 2025, the Giller Foundation announced that the award was in danger of having to shut down at the end of 2025 if other sponsorships and/or public government support could not be secured.

For 2026, the award named a jury consisting of independent booksellers rather than writers.

Nominees and winners

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s