Anne Michaels wins the $100K Giller Prize for novel Held
The Toronto-based writer is honoured for her historical novel in fragments
Anne Michaels has won the 2024 Giller Prize for her novel Held.
The $100,000 prize is the richest in Canadian literature.
Based in Toronto, Michaels is a poet and author who has previously won major literary awards including the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Trillium Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Before taking home this year's prize, she was shortlisted for the Giller Prize twice: in 1996 for Fugitive Pieces and in 2009 for The Winter Vault.
In her acceptance speech, she said that her writing is a way of bearing witness "against war, indifference, against amnesia of every sort."
"When writer and reader meet each other's gaze on the page, there's the possibility that something can be mended. Literature situates us morally. It recognizes the crucial distinction between what is impossible and what is futile."
"Everything I write is against futility. There's no moral righteousness. There is only morality. A book, especially this book, is nothing if it does not listen. Every book bears witness, every book its own form of resistance and assertion."
"I'm here tonight in solidarity with that purpose, in solidarity with the longlisted and shortlisted writers and every writer inside and outside this room."
A fragmented historical novel about enduring love
Weaving in historical figures and events, the mysterious, generations-spanning novel Held begins on a First World War battlefield near the River Aisne in 1917, where John lies in the falling snow, unable to move or feel his legs. It jumps in time and place to explore a fragmented picture of war and those who feel its reverberations.
"The narrative dips in and out of various places and times, and in many ways is trying to express all the ways that love continues its work past the span of a single life," said Michaels in an interview with Q's Tom Power.
The narrative dips in and out of various places and times, and in many ways is trying to express all the ways that love continues its work past the span of a single life.- Anne Michaels
"We're used to thinking about history as actions and events, but it's also the story of our inner lives, the force of our inner lives, what we believe in, what we aspire to, what our values are. And I wanted to really bring us to present moments in relationship to history that have to do with the power of that inner life."
Held was also shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.
The remaining finalists are Éric Chacour for What I Know About You, translated by Pablo Strauss, Anne Fleming for Curiosities, Conor Kerr for Prairie Edge and Deepa Rajagopalan for Peacocks of Instagram. They will each receive $10,000.
The shortlisted books are available in accessible formats through the National Network for Equitable Library Services and the Centre for Equitable Library Access.
Publishers submitted over 100 titles for consideration, which was narrowed down to a 12-title longlist before the reveal of the five-book shortlist.
The jury was chaired by author and producer Noah Richler and included writer and professor Kevin Chong and singer-songwriter Molly Johnson. When the jury was announced in January, it also included international jurors Dinaw Mengestu and Megha Majumdar, who have since stepped down.
"Anne Michaels' Held is a novel that floats, a beguiling association of memories, projections, and haunted instances through which the very notion of our mortality, of our resilience and desires, is interrogated in passages as impactful as they can be hypnotic," said the jury in a press statement.
"Michaels' mastery of word and situations is understated but insistent, an altogether successful reliance that deflects attention from its author and embeds the reader in the resoundingly mysterious and ephemeral. Here is a novel in which we are willingly held."
This year's televised in-person gala in Toronto was hosted by writers Ian Williams and Mark Sakamoto, journalist Johanna Schneller and singer Measha Brueggergosman-Lee.
Pushback from some authors
In July, more than 20 authors pulled their books from consideration for the prize, which is sponsored by Scotiabank, to protest the bank's investment in Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence contractor. By the time of the short list announcement, approximately 45 authors had signed a letter demanding the Giller Foundation pressure Scotiabank to fully divest from Elbit Systems.
Scotiabank had reduced its holdings in Elbit Systems by more than two-thirds as of Aug. 14, according to the Canadian Press.
As of Nov. 18, a fresh call from CanLit Responds for the Giller Prize to divest from Scotiabank has received more than 300 signatories, all of whom pledged to abstain from submitting works to the prize or participating in any events related to it until demands are met.
A protest formed at the entrance to the Park Hyatt Hotel as guests arrived to this year's gala in downtown Toronto.
The Giller organizers have removed Scotiabank's name from the prize. It still remains the prize's lead sponsor.
"Scotiabank continues to be the lead sponsor of the Giller Prize and we remain grateful for their support," said Giller Prize executive director Elana Rabinovitch, in an email to CBC Books when the longlist was announced. "The decision to remove their name was made so that the focus would be on these exceptional authors and their achievements, and to give the stage to Canada's best storytellers of today and tomorrow."
"Ultimately, more than ever, we want to ensure the prize stays true to its purpose: to celebrate the best in Canadian fiction and to give the stage to Canada's best storytellers. For us, that means ensuring the focus remains solely on the Prize and the art itself."
Scotiabank confirmed they are continuing to sponsor the Giller Foundation and the 2024 Giller Prize via email.
Last year's winner was Sarah Bernstein, for her novel Study for Obedience. Bernstein signed the letter calling for the prize to cut ties with Scotiabank. Omar El Akkad, who won the prize in 2021, also signed it.
Other past Giller Prize winners include Suzette Mayr for The Sleeping Car Porter; Souvankham Thammavongsa for How to Pronounce Knife; Esi Edugyan for Washington Black; Michael Redhill for Bellevue Square; Margaret Atwood for Alias Grace; Mordecai Richler for Barney's Version; André Alexis for Fifteen Dogs; and Madeleine Thien for Do Not Say We Have Nothing.
With files from The Canadian Press
