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Souvankham Thammavongsa Wins the 2025 Giller Prize

Souvankham Thammavongsa has won the 2025 Giller Prize for her novel “Pick a Colour,” an intimate story that follows a boxer-turned-manicurist over the course of a single summer day at her nail salon. The Laotian-Canadian writer claimed the $100,000 prize for literary fiction on Monday night, at a gala ceremony hosted at the Park Hyatt Toronto. This is Thammavongsa’s second Giller and comes after she previously won the prize in 2020 for the novel “How to Pronounce Knife.” She joins a small group of writers who have won the Giller twice, including Alice Munro and Esi Edugyan. Read more

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Omar El Akkad wins $100K Scotiabank Giller Prize for novel What Strange Paradise

What Strange Paradise is a novel that tells the story of a global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child. Nine-year-old Amir is the only survivor from a ship full of refugees coming to a small island nation. He ends up with a teenage girl named Vanna, who lives on the island. Even though they don’t share a common language or culture, Vanna becomes determined to keep Amir safe. What Strange Paradise tells both their stories and how they each reached this moment, while asking the questions, “How did we get here?” and “What are we going to do about it?” Read more

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