Annabel Lyon
After spending eight years at the library toiling over her debut novel, The Golden Mean , British Columbia writer Annabel Lyon has been rewarded with nominations for three major Canadian literary prizes.
Lyon's novel about Aristotle's relationship with Alexander the Great was recently shortlisted for the $25,000 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize. On Wednesday, she learned that the book is also vying for the prestigious Governor General's Award, worth $25,000.
Lyon, who was inspired to write The Golden Mean after being influenced by Aristotle's writings during her philosophy studies at B.C.'s Simon Fraser University, faces some stiff competition.
CanLit legend Alice Munro also made the list for her short story collection Too Much Happiness . Munro took her name out of the running for the Giller prize, saying she wanted the spotlight to shine on younger writers. Despite her decision to opt out of the Giller, Munro's book did earn a spot on the Writers' Trust short list.
Newfoundland writer Michael Crummey made the fiction list for his novel Galore , while Kate Pullinger, who lives in London but is originally from Cranbrook, B.C., is in the running for her novel The Mistress of Nothing . Victoria's Deborah Willis rounds out the list with a nod for her collection of short stories entitled Vanishing and Other Stories .
In an interesting twist, acclaimed fiction writer M.G. Vassanji - who has twice won the Giller Prize - made the Governor General's short list for non-fiction for A Place Within: Rediscovering India.
The winners will be announced Nov. 17 in Montreal.
All the nominations:
Fiction
Michael Crummey, Galore
Annabel Lyon, The Golden Mean
Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness
Kate Pullinger, The Mistress of Nothing
Deborah Willis, Vanishing and Other Stories
Poetry
David W. McFadden, Be Calm, Honey
Philip Kevin Paul, Little Hunger
Sina Queyras, Expressway
Carmine Starnino, This Way Out
David Zieroth, The Fly in Autumn
Drama
Beverley Cooper, Innocence Lost: A Play about Steven Truscott
Kevin Loring, Where the Blood Mixes
Joan MacLeod, Another Home Invasion
Hannah Moscovitch, East of Berlin
Michael Nathanson, Talk
Non-fiction
Randall Hansen, Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-45
Trevor Herriot, Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds
Eric S. Margolis, American Raj: Liberation or Domination? (Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World)
Eric Siblin, The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece
M.G. Vassanji, A Place Within: Rediscovering India
Children's Literature: Text
Shelley Hrdlitschka, Sister Wife
Sharon Jennings, Home Free
Caroline Pignat, Greener Grass: The Famine Years
Robin Stevenson, A Thousand Shades of Blue
Tim Wynne-Jones, The Uninvited
Children's Literature: Illustration
Rachel Berman, Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine Frog
Irene Luxbacher, The Imaginary Garden , text by Andrew Larsen
Jirina Marton, Bella's Tree , text by Janet Russell
Luc Melanson, My Great Big Mamma , text by Olivier Ka, translation by Helen Mixter
Ningeokuluk Teevee, Alego , text by Ningeokuluk Teevee, translation by Nina Manning-Toonoo
Translation: French to English
Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott, A Slight Case of Fatigue , English translation of Un peu de fatigue by Stephane Bourguignon
Jo-Anne Elder, One , English translation of Seul on est by Serge Patrice Thibodeau
David Homel and Fred A. Reed, Wildlives , English translation of Champagne by Monique Proulx
Susan Ouriou, Pieces of Me , English translation of La liberté? Connais pas by Charlotte Gingras
Fred A. Reed, Empire of Desire: The Abolition of Time , English translation of Le temps aboli: l'Occident et ses grands recits by Thierry Hentsch