Corinna Chong of Kelowna was nominated for this year's Giller Prize, the top literary award in Canada.
Image Credit: Silmara Emde
October 12, 2024 - 4:30 PM
Corinna Chong of Kelowna was nominated for this year's Giller Prize, the top literary award in Canada.
The Okanagan College English, creative writing and fine arts teacher's work of fiction titled Bad Land was published this past September and was added to the list as a competitor for the Giller Prize, an award given to a successful candidate who has written fiction or a collection of poetry.
Bad Land made it to the long list, a collection of 12 authors who were top competitors for the award. While her book didn't make it to the short list, she feels honoured to have been in the running and said her experience was absolutely wonderful.
“For fiction writers, it's the dream, right? The Giller Prize nomination is kind of the dream. So to have achieved that with this book is pretty mind blowing,” Chong said.
Her novel took over 10 years to write with brief breaks in between her writing time.
With her recent nomination, Bad Land has gained even more traction and its readership has continued to grow.
“Even readers in the community who've read it have reached out to me,” Chong said. "That's the best part about publishing a book, right, is connecting with readers and hearing that they found some value in the book and that it sort of helped them in some way.”
The novel is set in Drumheller, Alberta. Growing up in Calgary she explored this desolate place. It’s eerie feeling has engulfed her since. This was the inspiration she needed to begin her novel.
“When you go into Drumheller, you sink into this valley and then you're surrounded by these weird hills that are showing the geologic layers of thousands of years of heritage. For me as a kid, it felt like I was going back in time when I would visit this landscape,” Chong said. “I always remembered that feeling and this sort of eeriness of that landscape. When I began writing, I kind of knew that I wanted to write something about Drumheller.”
Her book follows a young girl, surrounded by mystery. The tale uncovers family secrets filled with a gothic tension. It focuses on morality. What it means to be good, what it means to be bad and what happens when such a binary is enforced.
The book also touches on the lives of women, who Chong said are “complex,” “not talked about enough” and “not reflected in media.”
At points during the writing of Bad Land worried people may not be interested in what she has to say.
“There were many points in the process of writing when I didn't know if this book would ever reach anybody. I didn't know if anybody would care about these characters or their story. And many times throughout the process, I thought, well, this is just going to be for me," she said.
"To have it out there and to hear people are connecting with it is definitely the greatest reward.”
The winner, judged by a panel of renowned Canadian authors, will be decided on Nov. 18. The winner is awarded $100,000 prize.
Go here for a list of all the books nominated for the Giller Prize.
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