Meet the five Canadian authors vying for the $100K Giller Prize

This composite image shows the covers of the Giller Prize finalists: "Wild People Quiet" by Tara Gereaux, "Eliza Sunshine" by Michelle Good, "Your Breath in Charcoal" by Nicholas Herring, "The Small Ones" by Nazanine Hozar and "Good People" by Patmeena Sabit. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — The Giller Prize (Mandatory credit)

TORONTO — Five Canadian writers are first-time finalists for the prestigious Giller Prize, which awards $100,000 to the author of the best Canadian novel, graphic novel or short story collection published in English this year.

For the first time, the prize will be decided by a jury of nine independent booksellers from across Canada. The winner is scheduled to be announced at a glitzy gala hosted by Rick Mercer on Nov. 16 at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto.

Here is a closer look at the authors and their books.

Michelle Good balances truth with fiction in ‘Eliza Sunshine’

“Eliza Sunshine” follows three generations of Cree women connected by their family’s tradition of storytelling. Good has said the novel is “very personal” as it’s based off her mother and great-grandmother’s life.

While it’s a work of fiction, Good said there are aspects that are “actually factual.”

“I often say something need not be factual in order to be true,” she said.

“More and more, I’m beginning to think that there really is no such thing as fiction,” she said. “Because whether we’re conscious of it or not, we’re drawing from our own points of view, our own experiences in life, our own observations. And so I think there’s a level of truth to all fiction, really.”

Good has previously been longlisted for the Giller for her 2020 novel “Five Little Indians.”

Nicholas Herring examines fear, love in ‘Your Breath In Charcoal’

“Your Breath in Charcoal” is about a directionless young Islander who picks up an acquaintance’s brother from a mental health hospital in New Brunswick, and the pair decide to travel further west to Toronto.

The novel is Herring’s second, following 2022’s ‘Some Hellish,” which won the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Herring, who works as a carpenter in his native Prince Edward Island, described his writing voice as “working-class” and ”philosophical.”

Herring said fellow P.E.I. writer Keir Lowther summed up his Giller-nominated novel best: “He said I wrote a fearless book about fear.”

“That’s a pretty good summation; I should give him credit,” Herring said. “I was just trying to tackle big issues — big sort of philosophical things like fear and love.”

Nazanine Hozar returns to Iran in ‘The Small Ones’

“The Small Ones” tells the story of children caught up in a military insurgence along the Iran-Iraq border in the early 1980s and is based on real conflict from the time.

The novel is Hozar’s second, following her 2019 national bestselling debut “Aria.”

Both novels take place in Iran, where Hozar was born and lived until she was seven years old and moved to Canada with her family in 1985. She said she returns to Iran through her writing because growing up amid the aggression of the revolution and the Iran-Iraq War “really marked me.”

“You can never, as an Iranian, get away from it, you’re always met with it. And so sometimes I feel that I don’t know if it’s my duty to write about it, but it’s my will to write about it,” she said. “And even in the future, if I might not specifically write about Iran itself, I think I’ll be quite inspired by the events there and what people there have to go through on a daily basis.”

Patmeena Sabit builds off thesis in ‘Good People’

“Good People” follows a wealthy Afghan-American family thrust into the court of public opinion after a tragedy, forcing them to navigate as the media and members of their community examine every aspect of their lives.

Born in Afghanistan, Sabit’s family fled to Pakistan following the Soviet invasion and later moved to Virginia, where the novel is set. She moved to Canada in 2000 for university.

It was at Montreal’s McGill University, studying international development, that Sabit wrote a thesis about honour-based violence and crimes in Jordan. That academic research laid the groundwork to later explore the topic in her first novel.

“I was coming at it from a developmental human rights (and) women’s advocacy point of view,” Sabit said of her thesis. “I never dreamed that years and years later, I would sit down and write a book about the issue.”

Sabit said she wrote the book over a period of 10 years, balancing contract work and later a nine-to-five job that meant she spent her mornings, evening and weekends writing, “which I think is such a common experience for so many people who want to write.”

Tara Gereaux inspired by Métis heritage in ‘Wild People Quiet’

“Wild People Quiet” explores the repercussions of a woman’s decision to hide her Métis identity while living in a prairie town in the 1940s.

Gereaux said the theme of her third book was inspired by a question she had about her own family, including her grandfather, who did not publicly discuss their Métis identity when she was growing up.

“My family never talked about us being Métis aside from saying that we were, but not really identifying as such outside the home. We always identified as French,” she said.

While the book is historical-fiction, Gereaux said she set it in the 1940s “because I really wanted to understand the time period that my grandfather was living in when he was a young man,” she said.

While touring with this book, Gereaux noted she has met other people across the country who have shared with her similar experiences of their families not talking openly about their Métis heritage.

“I was just shocked at how many people feel so personally connected to it,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2026.

Kaitlyn McGrath, The Canadian Press