Canada Reads

Esi Edugyan

Author of Washington Black, championed by Mark Tewksbury.

Author of Washington Black, championed by Mark Tewksbury

Esi Edugyan is a Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning novelist. (Courtesy of HarperCollins Canada)

Mark Tewksbury is defending Washington Black by Esi Edugyan on Canada Reads 2022.

Canada Reads will take place March 28-31. The debates will be hosted by Ali Hassan and will be broadcast on CBC Radio OneCBC TVCBC Gem and on CBC Books

About Esi Edugyan

Esi Edugyan is the author of the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning Washington BlackWashington Black was also a finalist for the 2018 Man Booker Prize and the 2018 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

Edugyan is also the author of the novels The Second Life of Samuel Tyne and Half-Blood Blues, the latter of which won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was defended on Canada Reads by Donovan Bailey in 2014. She delivered the CBC Massey Lectures and adapted the series into the book Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling. Raised in Calgary, Edugyan now lives in Victoria.

Books by Esi Edugyan

Interviews with Esi Edugyan

Esi Edugyan wins 2nd Scotiabank Giller Prize

5 years ago
Duration 2:55
Esi Edugyan won the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize, a $100,000 literary award, for Washington Black. It's her second time winning the prize after she took it home in 2011 for Half-Blood Blues.

'I can see myself in that boy:' Esi Edugyan on her Washington Black hero

5 years ago
Duration 1:16
The author on how she relates to the 11-year-old protagonist, who escapes life as a field slave in the cane fields of Barbados.

Rosemary Barton speaks with Esi Edugyan

5 years ago
Duration 2:12
Esi Edugyan tells The National’s Rosemary Barton how winning the Giller Prize will allow her to keep writing.
The celebrated Canadian writer talks to Michael about growing up black in Calgary, the legacy of slavery, and what it's like to win (or be nominated for) so many literary prizes.
Esi Eduygan talks to Shelagh Rogers about her new novel Washington Black.

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