Finalists for $100K Giller Prize say the recognition feels like a vote of confidence

TORONTO – When Michelle Good woke up at 4 a.m., an hour before she was scheduled to receive word on whether her book had been shortlisted for the prestigious Giller Prize, she knew there was no going back to sleep.

But the early morning wait was worth it, when the author was notified that she was among the five first-time finalists vying for Canada’s richest fiction award, which hands out $100,000 to the winner and $10,000 to the finalists.

“It’s almost heart-stopping,” Good said when reached in Winnipeg. “It’s so incredible to not only have your work receive popular approval, but critical approval as well, through the Giller. It’s just so satisfying and really phenomenal.”

Good was nominated for “Eliza Sunshine,” a multi-generational family saga that follows three Cree women and the storytelling tradition that connects them. The novel draws from Good’s mother and great-grandmother’s lives, which is why she said “it was an extremely personal and emotional book to write.”

“There’s so many things in this book that are actually factual and it was very important for me for people to understand it,” Good said. “For people to not miss the point. In particular, my mother’s story and my mother’s approach or feelings about identity. It’s a very touchy subject. And I think I hit the right note and that’s a big sigh of relief for me.”

The Cree lawyer, activist and Order of Canada member had previously been longlisted for her 2020 novel, “Five Little Indians.”

Meanwhile, Prince Edward Island-based author Nicholas Herring was nominated for his second novel “Your Breath in Charcoal” which follows a directionless young Islander who drives to New Brunswick to pick up an acquaintance’s brother from a mental health hospital.

When reached by video call while at his day job as a carpenter, Herring called the honour “very humbling and validating.”

“It means a lot obviously to have this kind of recognition,” he said. “Every Canadian writer probably sort of would hope that this would happen with their work, so in that sense I’m very grateful and very fortunate.”

Herring has previously received recognition for his writing, winning the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for his debut novel “Some Hellish” in 2022. Herring said the $60,000 prize money helped him carve out the necessary time to write his latest book, of which he said, “I was kind of swinging for the fences with this one.”

“I say this with as much humility as I can muster, but I just thought it’s a pretty unique book. It’s a pretty unique story,” said the author. “I’m probably the only person on planet Earth who could write this book. I didn’t know if it was good or not, but I knew it was definitely unique and singular.”

Herring said he was also hoping he’ll get to meet Canadian comedian Rick Mercer, who is scheduled to host the Giller’s televised awards ceremony on Nov. 16 in Toronto.

The Vancouver-based author Nazanine Hozar, who was nominated for her novel “The Small Ones,” was asleep when the short list was announced, but she woke up to a celebratory text from her girlfriend.

“It was just a series of happy sunshine emojis and stuff,” she said.

The Iranian-Canadian writer’s second novel draws from historical facts and tells the story of children caught up in a military insurgence along the Iran-Iraq border in the early 1980s. Hozar’s first novel, the national bestseller “Aria,” centred on moms and motherhood, so in her second book, she said she wanted to explore fathers and sons.

“And what it means to be a man in a world that seems to embrace violence and aggression and what would it mean to raise a son, to have sons, and what fathers and sons might mean to each other,” she said.

“The Small Ones” was only released in Canada last week, but Hozar said she’s grateful for the Giller recognition, especially after she said “it’s been very hard to crack the American market” with this title.

“There was a point there where I was thinking, ‘Oh, but did I write a bad book? Or have I got something wrong here?'” And I was really questioning certain things about my writing or my storytelling,” she said. “And it puts it a little bit into perspective that, OK, maybe you’re on the right track. Maybe you can even write another book. You have some ability, or at least people are recognizing something.

“It’s just a bit of encouragement and a more internal sense of knowing that I can do this and I can continue to do this.”

Rounding out the contenders are Regina-based Tara Gereaux for “Wild People Quiet,” which explores the repercussions of a woman’s decision to hide her Métis identity while living in a small prairie town in the 1940s and Toronto-based Patmeena Sabit for her debut national bestseller “Good People,” which tells the story of how a family’s private tragedy thrusts them into the court of public opinion.

The Giller has faced controversy and financial uncertainty in recent years.

In 2023, hundreds of book workers — including past winners — boycotted the award, in part objecting to its previous title sponsor Scotiabank and its ties to a subsidiary that held shares in Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer. The subsidiary has since divested from the arms company.

The Giller and Scotiabank parted ways in February 2025. The boycott ended earlier this year. 

In September, the Giller announced new funding from Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation, which would donate $4 million to the prize in a multi-year gift, in addition to $1 million the Weston family quietly gave a year ago, when the award was in dire financial straits.

In response to recent backlash, the organization created the Giller Prize Writers’ Circle, a new advisory council that it said will work to support the literary community.

A nine-member jury panel of independent booksellers representing all five regions of Canada selected this year’s short list from an initial list of more than 140 titles.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2026.