TORONTO, ONT – The 2016 Giller Prize considered the most prestigious in Canadian literature was won by Madeleine Thien’s ‘Do Not Say We Have Nothing’ at a black-tie dinner and award ceremony hosted by CBC personality Steve Patterson at Toronto’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
Giller Prize Winner Madeleine Thien
The Vancouver-born Ms. Thien also received the Governor-General’s Literary Award and was also a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. Along with winning the Giller Prize, Ms. Thien also received $100,000 in prize money.
The other finalists included
- Mona Awad for her novel 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl,
- Gary Barwin for his novel Yiddish for Pirates,
- Emma Donoghue for her novel The Wonder,
- Catherine Leroux for her novel The Party Wall,
- Zoe Whittall for her novel The Best Kind of People,
The winner was chosen by a five-member jury panel made up of Lawrence Hill (jury chair), Samantha Harvey, Jeet Heer, Alan Warner and Kathleen Winter, each finalist received $10,000,
Attended by nearly 500 members of the publishing, media and arts communities. The gala award was broadcasted by CBC and included such guests as actor Gordon Pinsent, musician Tanya Tagaq, R&B Singer Jully Black, playwright Ins Choi, politicians Bob Rae and Eric Hoskin.
The prize was founded in 1994 by businessman and philanthropist Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, the literary journalist Doris Giller.
