TORONTO — Order of Canada member Michelle Good is among the five first-time finalists for Canada’s richest fiction award. The Giller Prize announced the short list for the prestigious award on Monday. Good is nominated for “Eliza Sunshine,” a multi-generational family saga that follows three generations of Cree women and the storytelling tradition that connects them. The Cree author, lawyer and activist had previously been longlisted for her 2020 novel, “Five Little Indians.” Also shortlisted is Toronto-based Patmeena Sabit for her debut national bestseller “Good People,” which tells the story of how a family’s private tragedy thrusts them into the court of public opinion. Prince Edward Island-based author Nicholas Herring is nominated for his second novel “Your Breath in Charcoal” which follows a directionless young Islander who drives to New Brunswick to pick up an acquaintance’s brother from a mental health hospital. Herring previously won the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for his debut novel “Some Hellish.” Rounding out the contenders are Regina-based Tara Gereaux for “Wild People Quiet” which explores the repercussions of a woman’s decision to hide her Métis identity while living in a small prairie town in the 1940s and Vancouver-based Nazanine Hozar for “The Small Ones,” which is about children caught up in a military insurgence along the Iran–Iraq border in the early 1980s. The Giller Prize is Canada’s largest award for a work of fiction, handing out $100,000 to the winner and $10,000 to the finalists. The Giller has faced controversy and financial uncertainty in recent years. In 2023, hundreds of book workers — including past winners — boycotted the award, in part objecting to its previous title sponsor Scotiabank and its ties to a subsidiary that held shares in Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer. The subsidiary has since divested from the arms company. The Giller and Scotiabank parted ways in February 2025. The boycott ended earlier this year. In September, the Giller announced new funding from Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation, which would donate $4 million to the prize in a multi-year gift, in addition to $1 million the Weston family quietly gave a year ago, when the award was in dire financial straits. In response to recent backlash, the organization created the Giller Prize Writers’ Circle, a new advisory council that it said will work to support the literary community. A nine-member jury panel of independent booksellers representing all five regions of Canada selected this year’s short list from an initial list of more than 140 titles. This year’s Giller Prize is set to be awarded on Nov. 16 during a televised ceremony hosted by Canadian comedian Rick Mercer. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2026. Kaitlyn McGrath, The Canadian Press
