Anne Michaels’ ‘Held’, Anne Fleming’s ‘Curiosities’ make Giller Prize short list

Anne Michaels and Anne Fleming are among the five authors shortlisted for this year’s Giller Prize.
Organizers announced the finalists this morning, with the prize set to be handed out Nov. 18.
Michaels made the list for her multi-generational saga “Held,” while Fleming is in the running for her centuries-spanning novel “Curiosities.”
The finalists also include Conor Kerr’s “Prairie Edge,” a crime thriller about two distant Metis cousins planning an attention-grabbing Land Back protest; and Éric Chacour’s “What I Know About You,” translated by Pablo Strauss, about an Egyptian doctor straining under the strictures of his family’s expectations.
Rounding out the short list is Deepa Rajagopalan’s “Peacocks of Instagram,” a collection of 14 short stories about the Indian diaspora.
The award, worth $100,000, has been at the centre of a maelstrom in the literary community over its lead sponsor Scotiabank’s investment in an Israeli arms manufacturer.
Dozens of authors pulled their books from consideration for the prize over Scotiabank and other Giller sponsors including Indigo, whose CEO Heather Reisman is a co-founder of HESEG Foundation, which offers financial support to people who join the Israeli army.
Some of those who withdrew their books from consideration went on to become finalists for other top literary awards, including Sheung-King, whose novel “Batshit Seven” is in the running for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and Canisia Lubrin, whose book “Code Noir” made the short list for that prize and is a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.
Two of the five jurors who had signed on to choose this year’s finalists also cut ties with the Giller, and the selection process went on with only three Canadian judges.
Until last month, the Giller was known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize but organizers dropped the bank from the award’s name when they released the long list, in an effort to keep the focus on the authors.