TORONTO — The Giller Prize, Canada’s largest literary award for fiction, has found a new benefactor in the Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation. The Giller Foundation announced Monday that the Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation would give $4 million to the prize in a “multi-year gift,” in addition to $1 million the Weston family quietly contributed a year ago. That million-dollar gift, which a spokesperson says was not previously announced, came after the Giller parted ways with its former title sponsor Scotiabank. Hundreds of book workers — including some past winners — boycotted the Giller starting in 2023 over the bank’s sponsorship of the prize. They took issue with a Scotiabank subsidiary that had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer. The subsidiary has since divested from the arms company. The Giller boycott was lifted in April. The $100,000 prize goes to the book deemed the best work of fiction by a Canadian author published in English. It will be handed out this year on Nov. 16. The Giller website now lists among its sponsors and partners the Mantella Corporation, a real estate development and investment company, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, CBC Books and the San Miguel Writers’ Conference. The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation said it’s supporting the Giller in honour of Hilary M. Weston, who was a lifelong supporter of Canadian literature. The foundation also supports the Writers’ Trust of Canada awards through the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and Hilary Weston International Award. The former awards $75,000 to a Canadian author of a non-fiction book, while the latter gives $75,000 to honour a non-Canadian author’s body of non-fiction work. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2026. Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press
