Ghanaian-Canadian author Esi Edugyan won her 2nd Giller Prize with her novel “Washington Black”
Ghanaian-Canadian author Esi Edugyan has won the Giller Prize again! Victoria-based author Esi Edugyan was announced last week as the winner of the $100,000 prize for her novel Washington Black.
This is the second time Edugyan wins the prestigious Giller literary award. In 2011, she received the prize for her novel Half-Blood Blues. This new winning makes Edugyan the third author to win the Giller Prize twice. It is to be noted that Washington Black was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018, (with Edugyan being the only black author nominated), and the Writers’ Trust fiction award.
Washington Black
Published by Patrick Crean Editions, the book follows the journey of an 11-year-old boy named George Washington Black, who escapes slavery at a Barbados sugar plantation. His life is irrevocably changed after he becomes a manservant for the brother of his plantation boss, and some hidden talents come to light.
Edugyan feels it’s vital for authors to share the stories of marginalized people at a time when many forms of truth-telling are “under siege.”
“You just have to be true to what you’re writing and just run with it,” Edugyan explained.
“I sort of feel maybe that it’s opened me to writing about anything,” she said. “Stories of the marginalized, it’s extremely important to get those out there, and for us to be reading them, and trying to imagine ourselves into other skins, and not closing ourselves down
The Scotiabank Giller Prize
The Scotiabank Giller Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in Canada.
Established in 1994, the annual literary award was started primarily to award emerging and established authors in Canada for their outstanding literary work over the past year.
Author: Esi Edugyan
Edugyan was born in 1978 in Calgary, Canada to Ghanaian immigrant parents. She studied creative writing at the University of Victoria. She also earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. Her debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, written at the age of 24, was published in 2004 and was shortlisted for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award in 2005. She was shortly noted as one of the promising writers of African descent from Canada.
Get the book on Amazon: Washington Black
