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A champion of Canadian literature

As executive director of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, alumna Elana Rabinovitch promotes the nation’s best fiction
May 15, 2017
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By Vanessa Bonneau


The Scotiabank Giller Prize is awarded once a year to the best work of fiction in Canada. As the biggest prize of its kind in the country, it plays a crucial role in sharing our nation’s literature with the world.

Elana Rabinovitch, BA (Eng.) 86, joined the prize’s team as executive director in 2004. Her father, Jack Rabinovitch, launched the prize 10 years earlier in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller.

Elana Rabinovitch, executive director of the Scotiabank Giller Prize Elana Rabinovitch, BA 86, executive director of the Scotiabank Giller Prize

With Rabinovitch at the helm, the Giller is broadcast on CBC-TV and awards $100,000 to the winning author, with $10,000 going to the four other finalists. Generating press and buzz, the prize has increased book sales and brought more Canadian works into the international spotlight.

It was at Concordia, while completing an English degree, that Rabinovitch cultivated her deep appreciation of books. “I loved Concordia. I loved everything about it. I loved the language, the literature, the books, the learning,” she says.

“I was a really keen student. I soaked it all in. It was such a privilege to read these new texts that I might not have otherwise been introduced to.”

While her dad, a former speechwriter and book lover, instilled in her an appreciation of words and language, at Concordia, Rabinovitch delved into contemporary works.

“I had some wonderful teachers who turned me on to not just classic English literature but modern works as well,” she says.

“By that I mean American, British, European and Canadian books, although there was not as much from Canada as I now, looking back, wish there would have been.”

Concordia, CanLit and the Giller

A lot has changed in 20 years and Rabinovitch is pleased to hear that Concordia’s Department of English highlights CanLit with courses like Canadian Fiction to 1950 and Contemporary Canadian Fiction.

The university also contributes to the nation’s literary landscape. The department’s master’s degree in English with a Creative Writing option produces new Canadian fiction from grads like Johanna Skibsrud, MA 05, who won the Giller in 2010.

Elana Rabinovitch is pictured with Lawrence Hill Elana Rabinovitch is pictured with Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes, who chaired the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury.

Zoe Whittall, another attendee of the program, made the Giller short list in 2016 for her novel, The Best Kind of People. Nino Ricci, MA 87, a graduate of program, has been nominated in the past and served on the prize’s jury.

After Concordia, Rabinovitch studied journalism at Carlton University and worked as a reporter before switching into the music business, and later doing publicity for film and TV.

When the chance to take on the role of executive director at the Giller came up, she jumped at it. “I thought it might be something I’d like to do — to work on the prize, to meet authors I had read forever, to be able to contribute my own thinking and bring the prize into new and different areas,” Rabinovitch says.

Today she works with an associate and a webmaster, plus her colleagues at Scotiabank who deal with the financial side of things. “It’s a really lean operation,” she says.

Support for as many books as possible

The Giller’s jury now includes international members, and the prize hosts a number of public readings across the country. In the past, Crazy for CanLit, a corollary project, saw all fiction eligible for the prize in a given year posted on the Giller website.

“There’s a lot of really good fiction out there that needs the spotlight,” says Rabinovitch. “We try to come up with new and different ways to make sure Canadian works of fiction — not just the titles on our long and short lists — get as much attention as they deserve.”

Based in Toronto, Rabinovitch is always happy when books from French Canada are submitted for the prize. “It’s wonderful to be on the receiving end of so much literature in translation,” she says.

She cites Catherine LaRoux’s Party Wall — from the 2016 short list — as a favourite. “Even in translation she had that Quebecois vibe. You can hear the rhythms of the language; it’s very Montreal,” Rabinovitch says.

Party Wall’s translation, by Lazer Lederhendler, MA 93, won a 2016 Governor General’s Literary Award.

“We’re not set up to be a bilingual prize — that may be something we do down the line,” Rabinovitch adds. “So seeing works in translation is terrific.”

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