Five writers, namely Mona Awad, Eddy Boudel Tan, Emma Donoghue, Emma Knight, and Souvankham Thammavongsa, have been shortlisted for the prestigious 2025 Giller Prize, which awards $100,000 annually to exceptional Canadian fiction. The diverse selection of novels on the shortlist ranges from historical train disasters in Donoghue’s “The Paris Express” to family secrets in Tan’s “The Tiger and the Cosmonaut” and the daily life of a nail salon worker in Thammavongsa’s “Pick A Colour.”
Thammavongsa, a past Giller Prize winner for “How To Pronounce Knife,” is joined by Donoghue, a previous nominee, and Awad, who was shortlisted in 2016. Knight stands out as the only debut novelist on the list with “The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus.”
The shortlisted books are available in accessible formats through the National Network for Equitable Library Services and the Centre for Equitable Library Access. The judging panel, led by Dionne Irving along with Loghan Paylor and Deepa Rajagopalan, selected the finalists from over 100 submissions.
The anticipated Giller Prize award ceremony, to be hosted by comedian Rick Mercer, is scheduled to air on CBC TV, CBC Gem, and CBC’s YouTube channel on Monday, Nov. 17, at 9 p.m. ET. The broadcast will also be available on CBC Radio One and CBC Listen.
In recent years, the Giller Prize has experienced controversies leading to its split from long-time sponsor Scotiabank, following protests and calls for divestment from various Canadian writers and organizations.
Established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch to honor his late wife, the literary journalist Doris Giller, the Giller Prize continues to celebrate outstanding Canadian fiction.
