The 2010 Governor General’s Literary Awards finalists were announced today, and the shortlist includes gay writers.
Author Emma Donoghue is nominated for Room, her new bestselling novel, which was also in the running for the Man Booker Prize. The Booker went to novelist Howard Jacobson last night, but Donoghue tells The Globe that she’s “not remotely sad.”
Each of the 14 GG literary award winners, to be announced Nov 16 in Montreal, will receive $25,000. Descriptions of the shortlisted books by gay writers, from the Canada Council for the Arts:
English-language finalists, Fiction: Emma Donoghue, Room:
Room is a terrifying novel about the nature
of prisons and the innocence of inmates. Held captive in a secret room,
a mother and son dream of escaping, only to discover that the larger
world is merely a larger prison. A clear-eyed evocation of a child’s
perspective, this novel is both macabre and redemptive.
French-language finalists, Fiction: Marie-Claire Blais, Mai au bal des prédateurs:
In keeping with our times and the tendency toward many voices, the fragmented style of MarieClaire Blais’s Mai au bal des prédateurs
intermingles the lives of a cast of characters, creating a vibrant
portrait of contemporary society. Through the stories of Yinn the
transsexual and Mai the overprotected daughter, this compassionate book
draws us into the turbulent whirl of life.
>> Check out the full list of nominees
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