Book Prizes and Outdoor Festival in Toronto. City Busy Busy Busy for Book.

A Prize Week For Authors In Canada
By Stephen Weir 

Published September 17, 2014 Huffington Post Story

Yesterday it was the Giller. This morning it was the Griffin and the Weston Prizes and this weekend Word On The Street. This week is the busiest time of the year for authors, readers and the nation's book industry.

On Tuesday it was the Scotiabank Giller Prize announcing their longlist of a dozen authors for the 2014 Canadian Fiction Prize. The Giller also dropped a bomb - they aare doubling the prize purse given to the winning author - first prize is now $100,000. Runner-ups will receive $10,000 each.

The Giller is Canada's most prestigious fiction prize, and, with the new $10,000 award, it is now also one of the world's largest English language prizes. Usually the Giller announces here Toronto, but this year's shocker was made at McGill University'sMoyse Hall Theatre in Montreal. The award will be presented on November 10 and will be broadcast by the CBC.

This morning - Wednesday - the world's largest cash prize for poetry - the Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry - announced their 2015 jury. The three member jury is made up of Canadian poet / author Tim Bowling, American poet Fanny Howe and Polish poet/author Piotr Sommer.

There was also a press conference held this morning in downtown Toronto to announce the shortlist for the Honourable Hilary M. Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. Held in the aisles of the Loblaws store at Maple Leaf Gardens in downtown Toronto (pictured), the press conference introduced the five Canadian authors now in the running for the $60,000 2014 Prize.

Hilary Weston at the podium. Press conference was held in the aisles of a downtown Toronto Loblaws food store.

Nominated Weston Prized authors are:

Susan Delacourt for Shopping for Votes: How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them 
Naomi Klein for This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate 
Charles Montgomery for Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design 
Paula Todd for Extreme Mean: Trolls, Bullies, and Predators Online 
Kathleen Winter for Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage

The Weston Prize also announced that Indigo Books is now one of the marketing sponsors. As well they added two Canadian celebrities - CBC's Peter Mansbridge and Filmmaker Deepa Mehta - to their jury pool.

Four of the Giller Prize longlisted authors will be at the other big literary event being held this week in Toronto - Sunday's Word on the Street Festival. The free outdoor event will be held on University Avenue from Bloor Street south to College St. Word On The Street is a celebration of literacy and the written word and annually attracts over 200,000 book lovers of all ages to Queen's Park Circle in Toronto.

There will also be Word On The Street festivals in the cities of Halifax, Lethbridge, Saskatoon and Kitchener, The Word On The Street festival describes itself as the event that "unites the country in a national celebration of literacy and the written word'.

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