Novelists Esi Edugyan and Patrick DeWitt are among the familiar names on this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize long list.
Michael Redhill, last year’s winner, announced the contenders at a ceremony Monday in St. John’s, N.L.
The prize awards $100,000 to the winner and $10,000 to the other finalists.
A short list will be announced Oct. 1, and the winner will be announced at a televised gala in Toronto on Nov. 19.
Ms. Edugyan, who is nominated this year for Washington Black (Patrick Crean Editions), won the Giller in 2011 for Half-Blood Blues.
She beat out fellow 2011 nominee, Mr. DeWitt, whose latest novel, French Exit (Anansi Press), also made this year’s long list.
Rawi Hage, whose works have twice before been shortlisted in 2006 and 2008, is also being recognized for Beirut Hellfire Society, published by Knopf Canada.
The five-member jury described this year’s long list of 12 titles, culled from a field of 104 books, as a reflection of “the landscape of the current Canadian imagination.”
"These are stories about and beyond Canada, a list so exciting, exhibiting such pure excellence, it stands up to any list in the world, and it is great, great fun to read,” the jury wrote.
The jury panel included Canadians Kamal Al-Solaylee, a writer and journalist; Maxine Bailey, playwright and vice-president of advancement for the Toronto International Film Festival and author Heather O’Neill. It also included American writer John Freeman and English novelist Philip Hensher.
Also included on the long list:
Paige Cooper, Zolitude (A John Metcalf Book)
Eric Dupont, Songs for the Cold of Heart, translated by Peter McCambridge (QC Fiction)
Sheila Heti, Motherhood (Knopf Canada)
Emma Hooper, Our Homesick Songs (Hamish Hamilton Canada)
Thea Lim, An Ocean of Minutes (Viking Canada)
Lisa Moore, Something for Everyone (Astoria)
Tanya Tagaq, Split Tooth (Viking Canada)
Kim Thuy, Vi, translated by Sheila Fischman (Random House Canada)
Joshua Whitehead, Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp Press)