Calgary author and humorist Will Ferguson's sojourn into darker literary territory has paid off handsomely, earning the acclaimed writer a spot on the prestigious Giller Prize short list.
Ferguson's harrowing 419, which focuses on murder, Nigerian Internet scams and criminal cartels, was announced Monday morning as one of five books up for the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller, considered Canada's most prestigious literary prize.
Other contenders include Alix Ohlin's Inside, Nancy Richler's The Imposter Bride, Kim Thuy's Ru and Russell Wangersky's Whirl Away. Both Ohlin and Wangersky will be participants at this year's Wordfest in Calgary, which runs from Oct. 9 to 14 at various venues in Calgary and in Banff.
"It's certainly a thrill," said Ferguson, in an interview from his Calgary home Monday afternoon. "Especially when you toil away and wondering if what you're doing really makes sense and you wonder if it's working. When you write a book that is really layered and brings together lots of different stories and you do all this work and you wonder if it really resonates with anyone or if you're just deluding yourself, telling a story that only you find fascinating. So in one way it's a validation of what you're doing and it's nice to be able to say 'Yes, what I'm writing did resonate with readers.'"
Ferguson is no stranger to acclaim, having picked up the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for humour three times for his novels and travel books. But 419 marked a clear departure for the author: an international family drama and dark thriller.
On Monday, the Giller jury's citation called Ferguson "a master at dialogue and suspense" and 419 "genius" and "something entirely new: the Global Novel."
"It's certainly what the novel is about, it's about how we're interconnected and alienated at the same time," Ferguson said.
"We think we're interconnected, living in a borderless, globalized world, but at the same time it can alienate us."
The prize will be handed out in Toronto on Oct. 30 at a gala ceremony.
"My wife is very happy because it means she gets to come out with me to the gala," said Ferguson. "It's like a great date night. When you're married for a long time, that's a good date night . . ."
Ferguson is not the only Giller newbie.
Just a few weeks ago, Montreal author Alix Ohlin had never been a finalist for any major literary prize.
Now, her novel Inside is up for two of them: the $25,000 Rogers Writers' Trust of Canada Fiction Prize, which revealed its finalists last month, and the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize, which announced its short list on Monday.
"I'm totally thrilled, of course. I don't even know what to say. I'm just very happy," a stunned Ohlin, 40, said in a telephone interview shortly after Monday's Giller short list came out.
"I'm still absorbing it, I guess. It's a good kind of surreal."
This year's Giller prize will be handed out at a Toronto gala broadcast on CBC-TV and hosted by Jian Ghomeshi on Oct. 30.
with files from The Canadian Press
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