Mona Awad, Eddy Boudel Tan, Emma Donoghue, Emma Knight, and Souvankham Thammavongsa have been selected as the top five finalists for the prestigious 2025 Giller Prize. This annual award, with a prize of $100,000, celebrates outstanding Canadian fiction. The diverse 2025 shortlist showcases a range of narratives, from Emma Donoghue’s historical novel “The Paris Express” set in the 1800s, to Eddy Boudel Tan’s “The Tiger and the Cosmonaut” exploring a family’s past tragedy, and Souvankham Thammavongsa’s “Pick A Colour” delving into the life of a nail salon worker.
Souvankham Thammavongsa, a previous Giller Prize winner for her collection “How To Pronounce Knife,” is once again in the running. Emma Donoghue, a past nominee, is back with “The Paris Express,” while Mona Awad, also a previous nominee, presents “We Love You, Bunny.” Emma Knight stands out as the sole debut author on the shortlist with her novel “The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus.”
The Giller Prize shortlisted books for 2025 are accessible through the National Network for Equitable Library Services and the Centre for Equitable Library Access. The finalists were carefully chosen by the jury, led by Dionne Irving, alongside jurors Loghan Paylor and Deepa Rajagopalan. The highly anticipated Giller Prize award ceremony, hosted by comedian Rick Mercer, is scheduled to air on Monday, Nov. 17, at 9 p.m. ET on CBC TV and CBC Gem, with a live stream available on CBC’s YouTube channel and CBC Radio One.
In recent years, the Giller Prize has undergone changes, parting ways with former sponsor Scotiabank due to protests and calls for divestment. Last year’s winner, Anne Michaels, received the prestigious award for her novel “Held.” Notable past winners of the Giller Prize include Suzette Mayr, Esi Edugyan, Michael Redhill, Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Alice Munro, and Madeleine Thien.
Established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in memory of his late wife, Doris Giller, the Giller Prize continues to recognize excellence in Canadian literature. Explore more about the five shortlisted novels below.
