1991

Jean Baird uploads the year 1991 to her Booker Prize analysis, along with an interesting squabble over the conditions of book publishing in Canada

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1990

Jean Baird uploads her evaluation of the 1990 Booker Prize competition, along with a discussion of overheads in Canadian prize budgets

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1984

I’ve been thinking a lot about expectations. As we become more experienced readers how much do our expectations affect our response to a novel? The rest of our lives ebb and flow with our expectations so why not reading? George and I  lost our sea legs in Singapore, but it took a while, and not…

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1980

I think it’s now time to have a closer look at the Booker prize rules and see how they might be affecting the outcomes. Over the years the GG and Giller have had multiple—and different kinds of—winners  and the prize administrators have changed the rules. That is also true of the Booker, which now has…

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1977

Delayed by the summer holidays, Jean Baird uploads her analysis of 1977. We’re going to move a little faster through the years from here.

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1975

1975 I’ve been at this project now for months, reading the shortlisted and winning books. In order to meet the demands of a prize that requires reading 100 or more books, considering the time allotted, jurors must be reading 5 or more books a week. I’m not convinced that is possible—or desirable. How do judges…

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1974

Jean Baird continues her analysis of the Booker Prize nominees, winners and juries–and provides an overview of the “Prize Culture” Canadian publishing has created.

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1973

1973 It’s the 2008 award season in Canada as I write this—the GGs, Giller and The Writers’ Trust of Canada have been dolling out money for the past few weeks. Nino Ricci won the GG, Miriam Toews The Writers’ Trust Rogers Fiction prize, and Joseph Boyden the Giller. No agreement there. Only one writer appeared…

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1972

Jean Baird continues her Booker Prize analyses. 1972 was a good year.

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