Tuesday, October 21, 2008  
Skim Nominated for Governor General's Award

:: Posted by Bryan @ 10/21/2008 08:16:00 PM
skim jillian mariko tamaki graphic novel coverGGs Find Place for Graphic Novel in KidLit Category, Snub Artist

Toronto --For the first time, a graphic novel has been nominated for a Governor General's Award. The Canada Council for the Arts announced its 2008 shortlist for the Governor General's Literary Awards earlier today, and writer Mariko Tamaki was nominated for Skim, a graphic novel she produced with her artist cousin Jillian Tamaki, in the category Children's Literature --Text.

After the Giller Prize, the GGs are the most lucrative literary award in Canada.

Tamaki's nomination marks the first time a graphic novel has been nominated in any category. Tamaki stands to win $25,000 if her book is chosen as the winner on November 18 in Montreal.

According to the GG news release, "Each winner will receive $25,000 and a specially-bound copy of the winning book. The publisher of each winning book will receive $3,000 to support promotional activities. Non-winning finalists will each receive $1,000 in recognition of their selection as finalists, bringing the total value of the Awards to approximately $450,000."

Skim was initially published as a short comic by Kiss Machine in 2005 and won a special award from the Doug Wright Awards. An extended version was published this year by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press (distributed by HarperCollins Canada). The book has been enthusiastically and widely reviewed and has been a brisk seller on the graphic novel bestseller charts.

The juror's notes for the GG nomination describe Skim as "an audacious and original graphic novel set in a girls' private school. Skim, a slightly lumpy Kimberly Cameron, stumbles around the edges of cliques, depression, sexuality, suicide, crushes and an achingly ambiguous love. The story is heart-breakingly fresh and, in the end, a small celebration of life."

Tamaki's nomination is an indication of the increasing mainstream profile of graphic novels. It is also one of those happy occasions when an actual work of very high literary quality is chosen to represent the artform in the national spotlight.

The nomination of the book in the "text" category, with no mention of the art by Jillian Tamaki, is an odd but understandable choice, given the lack of a graphic novel category, since the book succeeds more on the strength of its words and picture combination than on the contribution of any one creator. The nomination in the children's category also does not do much for the status of literary graphic novels as adult material, especially given Skim's darkly humourous subject matter and sophisticated comics storytelling. On her blog, Jillian Tamaki notes, "I can't help but feel a bit of disappointment in this. I simply don't believe you can separate the pictures and words in a GRAPHIC NOVEL. They do the same for Children's Books with the GGs, which I kind of think is strange, but hey, at least the authors get an acknowledgment in the Illustrator's section. (...) I think this is another illustration (snort) of the chasm the graphic novels sit in, between "Comics" and "Books". The book industry is set up for very defined genres and graphic novels can pose a strange conundrum."

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1 Comments:

Blogger Von Allan said...

That is remarkable news. Despite the fact that it's in the writing category (well - Children's Literature, Text), it's still a huge breakthrough for graphic novels in Canada. Really, really neat. :)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 9:16:00 AM EDT  

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