Last year, at gritLIT's pre-festival event with Lit Live, we hosted André Alexis, who read from his then brand-new novel Fifteen Dogs, which was released by Coach House Books just two weeks before. At the event, I handed Alexis a cheque and thanked him for reading for us. On Tuesday, he received a much, much bigger cheque — the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize cheque.
I celebrated the Giller Prize as I do every year, at Giller Light, the party that takes place in major cities across Canada in support of Frontier College. As always, it was a wonderful evening full of wine, temporary literary tattoos from Litographs, and catching up with publishing folks I haven't seen in a while. This year, also had a red carpet, some flashy CanLit pants, and a survival-kit-esque swag bag. I'm already looking forward to 2016!
With the fantastic Ashley from Wolsak and Wynn.
Somehow my eyes managed to be closed in every single picture at the Indigo photo booth.
This year's Giller Light was co-hosted by Evan Munday who rocked CanLit leggings, complete with the faces of all the Giller shortlisters.
The Giller Light swag bag was less of a loot bag and more of a survival kit this year, complete with a full bottle of water, condoms, chocolate, and a lot of reading material. I challenge a short story writer out there to craft a short story using only materials found in this bag.
It was so great to see you at Giller Light, Jess! Have you had a chance to have the chocolate yet? I didn't think it would be good, but it was mindblowing.
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