May 11, 2000

JURY PANEL ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2000 GILLER PRIZE

Jack Rabinovitch, founder of The Giller Prize, is pleased to announce that authors Margaret Atwood, Alistair MacLeod and Jane Urquhart will comprise The 2000 Giller Prize jury.

Margaret Atwood's work has been published around the world and won many awards, including the Governor General's Award, the Trillium Book Award, the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence in the U.K., the National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature in the U.S., and the prestigious Le Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. Alias Grace, her ninth novel, won The Giller Prize, and the Premio Mondello in Italy, and was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize, the Governor General's Award for Fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto with novelist Graeme Gibson.

As Alice Munro did in the inaugural year of the prize, Margaret Atwood has graciously removed The Blind Assassin, her upcoming novel, from consideration in order to sit on this year's jury.

Alistair MacLeod was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In his early years, to finance his education, he worked as a logger, miner, and fisherman, and writes vividly and sympathetically about such work. Dr. MacLeod is a professor of English at the University of Windsor, Ontario. Working alongside W.O. Mitchell, he was also a teacher to generations of writers at the Banff Centre. His novel, No Great Mischief, which has been on national bestseller lists since its publication, recently won the 1999 - 2000 Trillium Book Award. Dr. MacLeod lives with his wife, Anita, in Windsor, Ontario.

Jane Urquhart's fiction has earned her many awards and honours, including the Trillium Book Award, the Marian Engel Award, Le prix de meilleur livre étranger (Best Foreign Book Award) in France, and for her bestselling novel Away, a place on the shortlist for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her fourth novel, The Underpainter, won the 1997 Governor General's Award. She has been named a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and has received several honourary doctorates from Canadian universities. In 1997 she held the Presidential Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the University of Toronto. Jane Urquhart lives in southwestern Ontario.

Dates Confirmed
This year, the shortlist is scheduled to be announced at a press conference in Toronto on Wednesday, October 2. The winner will be announced at a black-tie dinner and awards ceremony at Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel on Thursday, November 2, 2000.

Prize History
The Giller Prize awards $25,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English. The award was established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller.

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