The ReLit Awards are Canadian literary prizes awarded annually to book-length works in the novel, short-story and poetry categories. Founded in 2000 by Newfoundland filmmaker and author Kenneth J. Harvey .
23-544: Subtitled Ideas, Not Money the main title of the awards is short for Regarding Literature, Reinventing Literature, and Relighting Literature. The awards were conceived by Harvey as an alternative to larger mainstream prizes such as the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Awards . There is no money awarded for the prize; in the first two years, the winners received a nominal prize of one Canadian dollar , but since 2003
46-549: A different format than previous years, being taped for later rebroadcast rather than being aired live, although organizers and the CBC attributed this to increasingly common practice for awards ceremonies (such as the Canadian Screen Awards , which have also been broadcast in recent years as tape-delayed one-hour "highlights" specials rather than full live ceremonies) rather than the protests. Despite this, protestors still picketed
69-594: A month after the start of Israel's military operation in Gaza , protestors interrupted the Giller ceremony to object to Scotiabank's sponsorship of the prize, given the bank's reported $ 500m investment in Israel-based arms manufacturer Elbit Systems . In response to their arrests, an open letter was circulated in solidarity with the protestors, which was signed by more than 2,000 people, including past winners, finalists, and jurors of
92-423: Is currently working as an addictions physician at Coderix Medical Clinic. Lam's first book Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures is based on his experiences in medical school . Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures won the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize , Canada's most prestigious literary award, on November 7, 2006. Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures was also a finalist for The Story Prize in 2008. His second book,
115-516: Is in fact a quartet: Bertelsmann also owns 25 percent of McClelland & Stewart , and now manages M&S’s marketing." Henighan added that all of the Giller Prize winners from 1994 to 2004, with the exception of Mordecai Richler , lived within a two-hour drive of downtown Toronto. The article raised debate within the media and in the wider public over the credibility of the Giller Prize. Henighan revisited that article in 2015. In 2010, there
138-674: The Flu Pandemic and You , which was co-authored by Colin Lee, was published in 2008. Following Lam's Giller win, Shaftesbury Films announced that it had reached a deal to adapt Bloodletting into a television series, which debuted in January 2010 on HBO Canada . Lam published a biography of Canadian politician Tommy Douglas , as part of Penguin Canada 's Extraordinary Canadians series of historical biographies. His first novel, The Headmaster's Wager ,
161-766: The Giller Book Club, featuring virtual author readings and interviews, got off to a bumpy start when the inaugural offering was the victim of zoombombing . Since Rabinovitch's death in 2017, the Giller Prize Foundation is now overseen by his daughter Elana Rabinovitch. Following Vincent Lam 's win of the Giller Prize in 2006, Geist columnist Stephen Henighan criticized the Giller Prize for its apparent dependency for its shortlists and winners on books published by Bertelsmann AG -affiliated Canadian publishing houses, all of which are based in Toronto . Arguing that
184-548: The Giller Foundation does not actually have any meaningful leverage to make demands of Scotiabank, and any attempt to do so would merely result in the award not only losing Scotiabank's sponsorship, but effectively rendering itself into an unsponsorable award as no other major corporation would ever agree to the award imposing political conditions on its participation either. She further doubted that any of this would actually help Palestinians at all. The 2024 ceremony followed
207-430: The Giller Prize has been awarded to emerging and established authors from both small independent and large publishing houses in Canada. From 1994 to 2004, the prize included a bronze figure created by artist Yehouda Chaki . The current prize includes a trophy designed by Soheil Mosun . On September 22, 2005, the Giller Prize established an endorsement deal with Canadian bank Scotiabank . The total prize package for
230-605: The Giller Prize has run different promotions to extend its recognition and support of Canadian literary talent to highlight all Canadian fiction eligible for the prize in a given publishing year. For example, the Craving CanLit feature (previously called Crazy for CanLit), which highlights the initial list of all titles that are under consideration for the award's longlist and shortlist nominations, seeks to publicize Canadian literature by engaging readers and writers through social media tools. Another online initiative started in 2021,
253-407: The authors on the shortlist. In 2014, the prize package was expanded further, to $ 100,000 for the winning author and $ 10,000 for each of the shortlisted authors. If a translated work wins the award, however, then the prize money is split, with 70 per cent going to the original author and 30 per cent going to the translator. In 2015, the jury was expanded from three to five people. Over the years,
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#1733093494681276-505: The award was increased to $ 50,000, with $ 40,000 presented to the winning author and $ 2,500 each for the other four shortlisted nominees. The award's official name was also changed at that time to the Scotiabank Giller Prize. In 2006, the prize instituted a longlist for the first time, comprising no fewer than 10 and no more than 15 titles. In 2008, the prize fund was increased to $ 50,000 for the winning author and $ 5,000 for each of
299-546: The controversy, Marsha Lederman of The Globe and Mail noted that several other Canadian literary awards, including the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction , were not being targeted despite also being sponsored by companies with financial ties to Israel, and suggested that the primary reason for focusing solely on the Giller was that founder Jack Rabinovitch had been Jewish. She also noted that
322-412: The end, they turned to Douglas & McIntyre , a large West-coast publisher, to print copies of the book. The Gaspereau situation prompted an examination within the cultural community about what makes a book and the nature of publishing and marketing books. The book also became the top-selling title for Kobo eReaders , outselling even George W. Bush 's memoir Decision Points . In November 2023,
345-842: The hotel where the ceremony was taking place. Vincent Lam Vincent Lam (born September 5, 1974) is a Canadian writer and medical doctor . Born in London , Ontario , and raised in Ottawa , Lam's parents came to Canada from the Chinese expatriate community in Vietnam . He attended St. Pius X High School and did his medical training at the University of Toronto , graduating in 1999. Lam worked as an emergency physician at Toronto East General Hospital and has done international air evacuation work and expedition medicine on Arctic and Antarctic ships. He
368-417: The nominees into a shorter list of finalists. The award went on hiatus in the late 2010s, with no shortlists or winners announced for 2018, 2019 or 2020. It was announced in January 2021 that management of the award had been taken over by Harvey's daughter Katherine Alexandra Harvey, with the project expanding to incorporate an online literary journal and a mentorship program for young writers. In April 2021,
391-549: The previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries. The prize was established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife Doris Giller , a former literary editor at the Toronto Star , and is awarded in November of each year along with a cash reward (then CAN$ 25,000) with the winner being presented by the previous year's winning author. Since its inception,
414-556: The prize. By March 2024, Scotiabank had divested nearly half of its stake in Elbit Systems. In July 2024, 19 authors presented a letter withdrawing their books from consideration for that year's prize and demanding the foundation pressure Scotiabank's full divestment from Elbit Systems, as well as ending the sponsorships by the Azrieli Foundation, Indigo, and Audible over their ties to Israel's occupation of Palestine. The letter
437-401: The recipients have been presented with a silver ring designed by Newfoundland artisan Christopher Kearney, featuring four inlaid movable dials engraved with all of the letters of the alphabet. The award was known for its use of what were commonly called "very longlists" or "long shortlists", with no limit on the number of works that could be nominated in a given year and no followup winnowing of
460-584: The shortlists and winners for all of the hiatus years were announced throughout the month. In September 2023, Harvey announced that the awards will go on hiatus after that year's announcements, due to funding difficulties. Giller Prize The Giller Prize (known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize from 2005-2023 ) is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation)
483-532: The trend towards centralization of Canadian publishing in Toronto has led to a monopolistic control of the Giller Prize by Bertelsmann and its authors, Henighan wrote, "Year after year the vast majority of the books shortlisted for the Giller came from the triumvirate of publishers owned by the Bertelsmann Group: Knopf Canada, Doubleday Canada and Random House Canada. Like the three musketeers, this trio
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#1733093494681506-457: Was also signed by two previous winners of the prize. Dinaw Mengestu –who had was originally set to serve on the jury that year–resigned in response; the following week, the other international juror, Megha Majumdar , did as well. In the first quarter of 2024, Scotiabank further divested from Elbit Systems by more than $ 100-million; this makes for a total divestment over the previous year of more than three quarters of its total stake. Covering
529-444: Was much talk about how small presses dominated that year’s shortlist. Montrealer Johanna Skibsrud won the Giller Prize that year for her novel The Sentimentalists , published by independent Gaspereau Press . The company produces books using a 1960s offset printing press and hand-bindery equipment . As a result, while there was great demand for the book in the marketplace, the publisher had trouble keeping up with production. In
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