Giller Prize shakes up jury with indie bookstore staffers as it seeks new sponsors

TORONTO – The Giller Prize is shaking up its jury selection process this year, tapping representatives from five independent bookstores as it searches for new sponsors.

Giller Executive Director Elana Rabinovitch says the change lends a “people’s choice” quality to the $100,000 prize, Canada’s richest fiction purse.

In previous years, authors and artists have sat on the jury, but this year, seven people from five bookstores across Canada will select the long list of contenders before whittling it down to a short list, and finally, choosing a winner.

The jurors include Dan Macdonald and Lori Cheverie from Bookmark, which has locations in Halifax, Charlottetown and Fredericton; and Danielle and Rupert McNally from Ben McNally Books in Toronto.

The other jurors are Chris Hall from McNally Robinson Booksellers, with locations in Winnipeg and Saskatoon; Sarah Klassen from Mosaic Books in Kelowna, B.C.; and Jenn Baerg Steyn from Yellowknife Books, which is located where you would expect.  

Meanwhile, the statement announcing the jurors says the Giller is “in search of new sponsors and donors to continue its mission of championing the very best of Canadian storytelling.”

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For two decades, Scotiabank was the naming sponsor of the prize, but protests erupted in 2023 over its subsidiary’s investment in an Israeli arms manufacturer and the Giller Foundation eventually “parted ways” with the big bank.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 12, 2026.