October 4, 2011

All six Giller Prize finalists part of Vancouver International Writers Festival lineup

(October 4, 2011, Vancouver, BC)— All six authors named to the Giller Prize shortlist today are part of the Vancouver International Writers Festival’s 2011 programming. Esi Edugyan, Lynn Coady, David Bezmozgis and Zsuzsi Gartner, finalists for the $50,000 award, will all appear at the Writers Festival later this month, while Michael Ondaatje presented his novel to a crowd of 800 Festival attendees in late September. The sixth nominee, Patrick deWitt, appeared in Vancouver in a Festival event in May.

“The complete sweep of our Festival authors on this morning’s Giller Prize shortlist is a wonderful gift,” says Hal Wake, Artistic Director of the Festival “We work hard to ensure that we get the very best writers to present to Writers Festival audiences. Sometimes they have already won international fame, like Michael Ondaatje. But sometimes they are first-time novelists, like David Bezmozgis. Our audiences have come to trust our choice of authors.”

Victoria-based Playwright Joan MacLeod, appearing in the final event of this year’s Festival, was also nominated this morning for Canada's most lucrative theatre honour, the Siminovitch Prize, worth $100,000.

As well as the Giller Prize, Victoria-based author Esi Edugyan has been nominated for the Man Booker Prize, the winner of which will be announced Oct. 18. Her novel, Half-Blood Blues, is also up for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Another Festival author, Clark Blaise, appearing at the six-day Festival in two events, has also been nominated for the Rogers Writers’ Trust prize.

Finalists for the last major fiction prize, the Governor-General’s Literary Award, will be announced next week.

Over six days in October, more than 100 authors, from Canada, the US, England, Scotland, Ireland, Sierra Leone, New Zealand, Australia, Germany and Jamaica, will join thousands of readers at the annual festival. The Writers Festival is set for Oct. 18 to 23 on Granville Island in Vancouver.

Following the Festival, four special events will feature chef Anthony Bourdain, humorist David Sedaris, scientist Wade Davis and Chuck Palahniuk, author of the award-winning novel Fight Club.

Tickets for the Festival are on sale  through VancouverTix.com or by calling 604-629-VTIX (604-629-8849). Tickets are also be available at the Writers Festival box office, 1398 Cartwright Street. Complete program details are available at www.writersfest.bc.ca.

For more information on the Festival, contact:

Judith Walker
Media Relations Manager
Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival -- October 18 - 23, 2011
Cell 604.921.4029
media@writersfest.bc.ca
twitter: twitter.com/VIWF
facebook: www.facebook.com/VanWritersFest
www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/festivalvideo