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Past nominees on the list include Mona Awad for her surreal dark academia sequel “We Love You, Bunny” and Emma Donoghue for her historical novel “The Paris Express.” 

The other longlisted authors include Kirti Bhadresa for her short story collection “An Astonishment of Stars,” Eddy Boudel Tan for his novel “The Tiger and the Cosmonaut” and Fanny Britt for her novel “Sugaring Off,” which was translated from French by Susan Ouriou.

Also on the long list are Joanna Cockerline for her novel “Still,” Holly Kennedy for her novel “The Sideways Life of Denny Voss,” and Emma Knight for her novel “The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus.”

Rounding out the contenders are Amanda Leduc for her novel “Wild Life,” Otoniya J. Okot Bitek for her novel “We, The Kindling,” and Bindu Suresh for her novel “The Road Between Us.”

The Giller Prize is Canada’s biggest award for a work of fiction, handing out $100,000 to the winner and $10,000 to the others on the short list. 

It came under scrutiny in 2023 for its now-severed ties to former naming sponsor Scotiabank, a subsidiary of which had a large stake in the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.

Pro-Palestinian protesters jumped on stage during the televised ceremony that year, and five were arrested.

Charges against four were dropped last year, and the group CanLit Responds announced Monday that charges against the final protester were dropped last week, nearly two years after the fact.

That group also helped organized a boycott of the Giller, which it says will remain in place until the organization cuts ties with sponsor Indigo. They take issue with founder Heather Reisman’s ties to the HESEG Foundation, which offers scholarships to people with no immediate family in Israel who have served in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Hundreds of book workers, including some past Giller winners, have joined that boycott.

This year’s Giller Prize is set to be handed out in a televised ceremony on Nov. 17. The short list is due to be announced on Oct. 6.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2025.