Once again this year I’ll be participating as a Shadow Giller judge for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and we have just one week remaining until the long-awaited 2022 Longlist is revealed!
This post appears simultaneously on the Shadowing the Best of CanLit site. As always it is impossible to figure out what the Giller jury may choose from this year’s massive eligible list. We rely heavily on the Craving CanLit listings to choose our own reading and to speculate what might appeal to the judges. Below is complete speculation on my part as to what we might see on Tuesday, September 6th. The list below is a combination of what I would like/hope to see on the list but also what I think the judges may choose. It’s wholly conjecture on my part!
There were a lot of short story collections listed this year and I think we may see those dominate the Longlist. But again, I can never predict well. There are also a good number on my list that haven’t been published or aren’t available until after the Longlist announcement, so it’s a complete guessing game there isn’t it? On this list, I’ve read only two and of the ones I did read, I do hope to at least see these two on the Longlist. Those two are: When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill and No Stars in the Sky by Martha Batiz. (Batiz’s is one where fellow Shadow juror Lindy disagrees with me, but O’Neill’s is the one we both agree should be on the Longlist.)
I’ve selected a nice round dozen for my Wishlist. What do you think of my list?
I have many, many more marked to read because they appeal very much to me, and maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised and will see some of those appear on the actual Longlist. It’s always a mystery and I’m sure if I went back and looked at the list of eligible titles I would change some on here. But for now – these are the ones I think (and hope) we’ll see next Tuesday!
Thank you for reading along with us again this year, we’re looking forward to it as always!
