Scotiabank Giller Prize

Book awards! They’ve been dropping like leaves from trees and I’ve been walking, head down into the wind, kicking acronyms right and left. I mean this figuratively, of course.

I just returned from a walk in the woods, literally, and decided to curl up in front of the fireplace with some cocoa and a laptop. My afternoon project, to rake up these book awards and find out the what’s-what and the who’s-who of it all — from winners to judges.

	Governor General’s Award	Scotiabank Giller Prize	Man Booker Prize	Rogers Writer’s Trust Fiction
Winners 2013:	Eleanor Catton	Lynn Cody	Eleanor Catton	Colin McAdam
Awarded for:
Awarded to:	The year’s best English-language and the best French-language book in each of the seven categories.	The year’s best Canadian fiction novel or short story collection.	The year’s best Canadian fiction *There is also a Man Booker International Prize.	The year’s best Canadian fiction novel or short story collection * Writer’s Trust also gives out nine other awards annually.
Eligibility:	Eligibility Guidelines “… must have been writ-ten, translated or illustra-ted by Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada (they do not need to be residing in Canada). Self published books are ineligible	Eligibility Guidelines Must be a first edition full length novel or short story collection written by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada Must be written in English Self published books are ineligible	Eligibility Guidelines Must be a first edition full length novel written by a citizen of the Common-wealth or Republic of Ireland, published in the United Kingdom. Must be an original work in English (not a translation) Self published books are ineligible	Eligibility Guidelines Writers must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. (Canadian writers living overseas are eligible.) Self published books are ineligible
Judging:	A jury of fellow authors, translators and illustrators, makes the final selection in each category.	A panel of three celebrated Canadian authors	“… judges are chosen from a wide range of disciplines, including critics, writers and academics, but also poets, politicians and actors, all with a passion for quality fiction.”	“An Author’s Committee composed of writers from across the country recommends writers” to fill a three member, independent judging panel

These are the five bits of wisdom that I will carry forward:

1. Write often, apply the craft, rework your writing, and then edit. Writing should be as routine as breakfast, lunch and dinner so when you sit down with pen in hand or keyboard on lap, the words begin to flow.

2. If you wait for the perfect time to write, you’ll wait forever. The need to tell the story should compel you to write in every available moment on any available surface: old envelopes, the margins of the newspaper, a laptop keyboard, or paper towels at the gym.

3. The silent moments are necessary for productive writing and should not be allowed to slip by unused. If they don’t happen naturally, create them.

4. Your experience of a community can inform your writing. Think of the communities, both large and small, that you are a part of — a culture, a city, a neighbourhood, or an organization. .

5. Keep the aspiring in aspiring author. Aspiring means to seek ambitiously, especially something of high value, so keep that momentum going. Write voraciously and direct your efforts toward a specific goal.

We all start somewhere, whether it is our first blog post, first novel, or first short story submission. Even a Giller Prize winner must have followed his or her own advice and aspired to take that first of many steps, So here I go. First step, press “publish”!

What advice has inspired your writing life? I’d love to hear from you.

Gwen Tuinman

Novelist

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