Congratulations in Order for Skibsrud and Gaspereau

Once again, we send our congratulations to Johanna Skibsrud and Gaspereau Press for the breaking news, "Johanna Skibsrud’s The Sentimentalists wins the Giller Prize". It was indeed, anyone's guess who was going to win, but we would be remiss to mention that we've already picked her as a winner! Yes, Johanna Skibsrud's book received first prize in the PROSE NON-FICTION category earlier this year in our annual competition for book design excellence in Canada, thanks to the good work of designer ANDREW STEEVES at Gaspereau Press.

The National Post Twitter account just called it: "I'll say it: biggest upset in Giller Prize history."

To which @NPRBooks replied: "Drama in the Canadian world of letters!"

Johanna herself was taken off guard, and provides a truly humbled reaction in her quote in the National Post online:

“I had really put [winning] out of my mind as a possibility,” she said. “I just didn’t conceive of it, really. So then when I heard my name I didn’t really process it at all. I think I had to see the reaction from my sister and her saying ‘You’ve got to go up there!’ to really understand what had just happened." link

Here's another interesting quote from Andrew's blog, written a month prior to winning the Giller Prize:

If The Sentimentalists does win, it will be the first time the Giller-winning book will also have been the winner of the Alcuin Society’s award for Excellence in Canadian Book Design (though if I remember correctly, Kong Njo got a third place Alcuin for Atwood’s Alias Grace and Spencer Francy Peters had an honourable mention for Richler’s Barney’s Version). So I feel that it is important that the 6328th copy of the book we manufacture (or, if you believe the numbers hype, the 20,328th) be every bit as well made as the first one, and not just a disposible rectangular hunk of woodpulp and glue temporarily propped into the shape of a mass market novel, a mere shadow of its beginnings. I’m not interested in that, whatever anyone else may think. I'm a crummy capitalist; I believe above all else that readers deserve books worthy of their content, and the content of this book is exceptional. link

And now, for one last bit of breaking news, we will have not ONE but TWO copies of Johanna Skibsrud’s The Sentimentalists up for auction this Saturday! These are, in fact, two FIRST EDITIONS! Come and support book design excellence this weekend by attending our auction at the UBC University Golf Club. The auction is free to attend (the lunch beforehand requires RSVP by Nov 10), and all the details are available in our previous post. We hope to see you there!