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November 3, 1999
AUTHOR BONNIE BURNARD
WINS THE 1999 GILLER PRIZE
Canada's Premier Prize for Fiction Names A Winner
TORONTO - At a gala dinner and award ceremony
that drew over 450 members of the publishing industry and
arts community, Bonnie Burnard was named as the 1999 winner
of The Giller Prize, Canada's premier literary prize for
fiction. Bonnie Burnard's winning novel, A Good House,
is published by HarperFlamingoCanada/A Phyllis Bruce Book.
The largest annual prize for fiction in the country, The
Giller Prize awards $25,000 each year to the author of the
best Canadian novel or short story collection published
in English. A shortlist of five finalists was announced
on October 4, 1999.
Those finalists were:
- Bonnie Burnard for her novel A Good House, A
Phyllis Bruce Book published by HarperFlamingoCanada
- Timothy Findley for his novel Pilgrim, published
by HarperFlamingoCanada
- Anne Hébert for her novel Am I disturbing
you?, published by House of Anansi Press
- Nancy Huston for her novel The Mark of the Angel,
published by McArthur & Company
- David Macfarlane for his novel Summer Gone, published
by Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Selected by a distinguished jury panel, comprised
of authors Alberto Manguel and Nino Ricci and bookseller
Judith Mappin, the finalists were chosen from 70 books submitted
for consideration.
Of the winning book, the jury remarked, "In
A Good House, Bonnie Burnard imbues the apparently ordinary
lives of her characters with an integrity and a depth of
emotion that in the end make them unforgettable. Following
the history of a southern Ontario family over a period of
fifty years, the novel gives us the sweep of whole lives
lived so that we come away with what feels like wisdom,
a sense of the moments that truly give value and meaning
to a life."
ABOUT THE WINNER
Bonnie Burnard's Casino & Other Stories was shortlisted
for The 1994 Giller Prize and won the Saskatchewan Book
of the Year Award. Her first story collection, Women
of Influence, won the Commonwealth Best First Book Award.
She is the recipient of the Marian Engel Award and for two
years served on The Giller Prize jury panel. A creative
writing teacher and reviewer, she has been a guest lecturer
at writing and literary conferences in South Africa, Sweden,
Germany, and England. Born in Petrolia, Ontario, Bonnie
Burnard lived for many years in Regina and now lives in
London, Ontario, where she was recently a writer-in-residence
at the University of Western Ontario.
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