Suzette Mayr has won the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize for novel The Sleeping Car Porter, which highlights an important part of Black history in North America from the perspective of a gay man.
The prestigious award, which goes to the best Canadian novel, short story collection or graphic novel published in English and comes with a $100,000 prize, was announced late Monday at a Toronto gala.
“Thank you to the jury members for selecting my book,” said Mayr, tearfully, while accepting the award during the ceremony, which aired on CBC. “I think today I'm officially done with my feelings with impostor syndrome as a writer.”
Mayr was chosen from a shortlist of five novel and short story authors, narrowed down from a longlist of 14 and 138 submissions. The four other finalists, Kim Fu, Rawi Hage, Tsering Yangzom Lama and Noor Naga, will receive $10,000 each.
The winner was chosen by this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize jury comprised of Casey Plett (Jury Chair), Kaie Kellough and Waubgeshig Rice, and American authors Katie Kitamura and Scott Spencer.
The jury said of the winning book: “Suzette Mayr brings to life – believably, achingly, thrillingly –a whole world contained in a passenger train moving across the Canadian vastness, nearly one hundred years ago. As only occurs in the finest historical novels, every page in The Sleeping Car Porter feels alive and immediate – and eerily contemporary. The sleeping car porter in this sleek, stylish novel is named R.T. Baxter – called George by the people upon whom he waits, as is every other Black porter. Baxter’s dream of one day going to school to learn dentistry coexists with his secret life as a gay man, and in Mayr’s triumphant novel we follow him not only from Montreal to Calgary, but into and out of the lives of an indelibly etched cast of supporting characters, and, finally, into a beautifully rendered radiance.”
In her acceptance speech, Mayr acknowledged the importance of sleeping car porters, “the men and the communities around them who are an essential part of Canadian history.” She also had a message for the LGBTQI+ community, “many of whom, like my main character Baxter, are still too scared to come out or cannot come out because to do so would be too dangerous. I see you, I love you and this book is for you.”
After the ceremony, Mayr said winning the award “means the world to me.”
“It means that I am a legitimate voice in Canadian literature. Queer and BIPOC people matter,” she said. “It’s huge for me.”
Mayr, who lives in Calgary with her partner, is the author of the novel Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall and several others. Among the accolades her work has received, The Widows was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean region, and has been translated into German. Moon Honey was shortlisted for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s Best First Book and Best Novel Awards. Monoceros won the ReLit Award, the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize, was longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize, and shortlisted for a Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction, and the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction.
"Suzette Mayr's magnificent and powerful work of fiction inspired this year's jury to select her as the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner and cements her reputation as a world-class writer. Heartiest congratulations to Suzette on her win tonight!" said Elana Rabinovitch, Executive Director, Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Thank you to the jury members for selecting my book. I think today I'm officially done with my feelings with impostor syndrome as a writer.
The Scotiabank Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch, a Canadian businessman who named the prize in honour of his wife, the late literary journalist Doris Giller. Rabinovitch passed away in 2017.
In 2005, the prize teamed up with Scotiabank and increased the winnings four-fold.
Monday’s award ceremony was hosted by Indian Canadian author, artist and performer Rupi Kaur and award-winning actress and producer Sarah Gadon. It was broadcast live commercial-free by Scotia Wealth Management on CBC, CBC Radio One and streamed live on CBCBooks.ca
"Congratulations to Suzette Mayr for winning the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Scotiabank is proud that our partnership with the Scotiabank Giller Prize, which began in 2005, has helped raise the profile of Canada's top literary talent at home and abroad. Thank you to the jury for taking on the challenge of selecting tonight's winner from an outstanding group of authors. Congratulations again to Suzette, and to all of the short- and longlisted authors. Your stories have inspired and enriched readers from coast-to-coast-to-coast," said Laura Curtis Ferrera, Chief Marketing Officer, Scotiabank.
The winner of the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize will join the Guadalajara International Book Fair for a celebratory event on November 30, 2022, at the World Trade Center Guadalajara.
Mayr will also participate in an in-person interview as part of the 2023 San Miguel Writer’s Conference & Literary Festival on February 16, 2023.
