Hi there, I’m Jackson Weaver, a reporter and critic with CBC’s entertainment news team.
They’re perhaps not all “fun” facts, but the Giller Prize does have a number of interesting quirks.
For example: Initially offering a purse of $25,000, the prize money eventually ballooned to $140,000 ($100,000 to the winner, and $10,000 to each finalist) as the biggest Canadian literary award.
While the trophy itself was originally a bronze sculpture, it was later redesigned as a brushed stainless steel plate. In 2020, it was redesigned again: this time as a sort of Inukshuk of books, moulded out of glass by Finnish Canadian artist Minna Koistinen.
Retained throughout was the emblem of the rose: a reference to founder Jack Rabonivitch’s late wife Doris Giller. A book reviewer who grew up without a garden, she subsequently cultivated her green thumb to compensate. Rabonivitch started the awards in her honour, and when asked what he’d call them, the answer was as obvious to him as it was simple.
“The Giller, what else?” he said.
