UNB MA Creative Writing Alumnus Craig Davidson shortlisted for 2013 Giller Prize

Photo credit Kevin Kelly

The Fiddlehead would like to congratulate Craig Davidson on his being named to the 2013 Giller Prize shortlist. While a student in the Creative Writing MA at UNB, Craig was an editorial assistant for The Fiddlehead. Later, he won our annual contest with a story called "28 Bones" which went on to become the title story of his short story collection Rust and Bone. That book later came to the attention of French director Jacques Audiard, who used two of the stories for the critically-acclaimed movie De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone). Craig's most recent story appeared in The Fiddlehead's summer fiction issue, which was also featured at The Literarian, an online magazine of The New York Center for Fiction.

Here's a selection of Canadian media stories about the shortlist, announced yesterday:

CBC

Globe and Mail

The National Post

The Toronto Star

Congratulations Craig, and good luck!

Fiddlehead News

The Fiddlehead 247 (spring 2011), which contained the winners of the 20th annual contest, received a lovely review from NewPages.com. Go take a look!

Also congratulations to Clark Blaise whose new book, The Meagre Tarmac, made the Scotiabank Giller Prize long list. His story, "Brewing Tea in the Dark," which was published in The Fiddlehead 248, is from this collection. There's additional wonderful news for Clark Blaise, The Meagre Tarmac has been shortlisted for the 2011 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. The Globe and Mail has an excerpt from The Meagre Tarmac and a readers' poll on who should win this year's prize (updated 28 October) .

Award-winning author and filmmaker David Bezmozgis to read at UNB

Award-winning author and filmmaker David Bezmozgis will be reading from his Giller Prize long-listed novel, The Free World, at the Galleries in Memorial Hall on Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 at 8pm.

David Bezmozgis was selected by The New Yorker as one of the twenty writers of fiction under forty years old most likely to be a major writer of his generation.

Latvian-born Canadian Bezmozgis received acclaim for his first collection of fiction, Natasha and Other Stories (2004), which was a New York Times Notable Book, one of the New York Library's 25 Books to Remember for 2004, and was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award (UK), the LA Times First Book Award (US), and the Governor General’s Award (Canada) and has been translated into fifteen languages. Bezmozgis' stories have appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, Harpers, Zoetrope All-Story, and The Walrus.

Bezmozgis developed his first feature film, Victoria Day, at the Sundance Labs and it premiered in competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, subsequently receiving theatrical release in Canada and a Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay.

The Free World was published in April 2011 in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Holland. It was announced as a selection for the Giller Prize long list on September 6th, 2011.

The reading is presented by the University of New Brunswick English Department, the UNB Bookstore, The Fiddlehead, and the Canada Council for the Arts. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.