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.
“Pick a Colour” tells the story of Ning, a retired boxer who’s known to the clients at her salon only as Susan. Following her as she polishes, buffs and clips the nails of her customers, the novel is a quiet examination of class and the immigrant experience.
In her acceptance speech, Thammavongsa thanked her parents, along with those whom she said supported her as an author.
“When I was a kid, I didn’t know how to become a writer. My mom and dad are not writers. I printed and bound my own books, sold them out of my school knapsack on front lawns and farmers’ markets and at small press fairs,” she said. “So, thank you to anyone who has ever bought a book that I’ve made. I know you care about me.”
The Giller Prize has been roiled by controversy since the start of the war in Gaza in 2023. The prestigious literary award was marked by disruptions and public disagreements stemming from its corporate partnerships, most notably for its former ties with lead sponsor Scotiabank, whose subsidiary 1832 Asset Management invests in the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.
The 2025 Gillers mark the first ceremony since the prize split earlier this year with Scotiabank. Security was tight at the venue, with barricades erected outside the Park Hyatt Hotel and police stationed in the lobby. The event also wasn’t broadcast live. Instead, it was taped earlier in the evening before airing on CBC later at 9 p.m.
Social media posts, however, appear to show a small group of pro-Palestinians demonstrators protesting outside the hotel.
Elana Rabinovitch, executive director of the Giller Prize, appeared to reference the recent turmoil in a speech she delivered shortly after the winner was announced. “It is far easier to destroy something than to build it up,” she said. “Our mission is and always will be clear and simple: to celebrate and promote Canadian writers. In the last two years, we have wondered at times what our future would look like. I actually think it looks like this room tonight.”
The three-person jury cited “Pick a Colour” as a work that “challenges our biases and insists that we never look at a nail salon, or its workers, the same way again.” They added: “A master of form and restraint, Thammavongsa once again affirms her place as one of the most vital literary voices of our time.”
For her novel, Thammavongsa immersed herself deeply in the world of her protagonist, even learning how to box. “It’s like finding the voice of someone you really love and care about,” she said to the Star after her win, explaining her process. “They become your minute, your hour, your month, your year. And then when you don’t hear that voice anymore, it becomes very sad.”
The other finalists, who will each receive $10,000, were four-time nominee Emma Donoghue for “The Paris Express,” her historical novel about the 1895 Montparnasse train derailment; Mona Awad for “We Love You, Bunny,” a sequel to her horror satire “Bunny”; first-time nominee Eddy Boudel Tan for the mystery novel “The Tiger and the Cosmonaut”; and Emma Knight for “The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus,” a witty coming-of-age story about a young woman falling in love for the first time while also unravelling a family secret.
Monday night’s ceremony was hosted by the Canadian TV personality and comedian Rick Mercer. He kick-started the proceedings with an opening monologue that poked fun at everything from the controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson to the rise of artificial intelligence.
He also talked about his love of reading.
“A good book is more than just a book,” said Mercer. “It can be a friend, a doctor, a therapist. It can be a good escape, or make you jump out of your seat in joy or in fear.”
Following Mercer’s monologue, the ceremony featured videos profiling each of the finalist authors.
Special guests in attendance include Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations; author John Irving; former Liberal MP Seamus O’Regan; former CTV journalist Lisa LaFlamme; and the playwright and author Ann-Marie MacDonald.
More than 100 titles were submitted by Canadian publishers for this year’s Gillers. The prize unveiled its longlist of 14 novels in mid-September, before whittling it down to the slate of five finalists the following month.
This year’s jury consisted of authors Dionne Irving, Loghan Paylor and Deepa Rajagopalan, all former Giller finalists. Fellow writers Jordan Abel and Aaron Tucker were also initially named to the jury, but dropped out in February, with the latter citing his opposition to the Giller’s now former partnership with Scotiabank.
During the 2023 Giller Prize gala, several pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested after disrupting the ceremony. Police later dropped all charges. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators also staged a protest last year, outside the venue hosting the Gillers.
The Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by the Canadian philanthropist Jack Rabinovitch, in honour of his late wife Doris Giller, a literary writer and former Toronto Star journalist who died from cancer the year before.
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