David Bergen vies for 2nd Giller Prize

David Bergen will vie for his second Giller Prize, leading the list of finalists for the $50,000 award honouring the best Canadian novel or short story collection of the past year.

Bergen, a nominee this year for The Matter with Morris, could join the ranks of Giller double-winners M.G. Vassanji and Alice Munro. The Winnipeg writer last earned the coveted Canadian honour in 2005 for his novel  The Time in Between. 

His new novel, which follows a man grieving a son killed in Afghanistan while also facing career and marital woes, is the lone Giller finalist from a major publishing house (HarperCollins).

The remaining four competitors hail from independent firms, with two publishing their first books ever and the other two making their debuts as novelists:

• Toronto-based author and creative writing teacher Sarah Selecky's debut short story collection This Cake is for the Party is published by Thomas Allen & Son.
• The short fiction collection Light Lifting, published by Biblioasis, is the debut book from Dartmouth-based Alexander MacLeod, son of acclaimed Canadian writer Alistair MacLeod.
• Montreal-based writer and poet Johanna Skibsrud's first novel The Sentimentalists is published by Gaspereau Press.
• Award-winning short story author Kathleen Winter, also based in Montreal, has released her first novel Annabel, published by Anansi. Winter, who won the Metcalf-Rooke and Winterset Awards for her short story collection boYs, is the sister of noted novelist Michael Winter.

The finalists were unveiled in Toronto Tuesday morning by two of this year's jurors: CBC broadcaster Michael Enright and U.S. author Claire Messud. British writer Ali Smith rounds out the panel.

The shortlisted authors will be celebrated and the winner announced at the ritzy annual Giller prize gala in Toronto on Nov. 9. Along with the $50,000 grand prize for the Giller winner, finalists will also receive $5,000 each.

Established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch to honour the memory of his wife, literary journalist Doris Giller, the prize has grown to become one of Canada's most prestigious and lucrative literary awards.

Past winners have included Linden MacIntyre, Joseph Boyden, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Austin Clarke and Vincent Lam.