Brandon Humber
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER

Three winners of the prestigious Giller Prize will join Humber staff at next summer’s workshop at Humber’s school for writers.

“It’s a great feather in our cap [to get the recognized writers on staff],” said Joe Kertes, dean of the school of creative and performing arts.

Esi Edugyan, winner of the Giller in 2011, will teach at the school this upcoming year, as well as Johanna Skibsrud, the 2010 winner, and two-time Giller winner M. G. Vassanji, who received the prize in both 2003 and 1994.

The Giller Prize is one of the highest honours Canadian authors can receive. It is awarded to a Canadian fiction writer annually, and carries an endowment of $50,000.

Kertes said  students will have the benefit of the authors’ vast experience in the industry, as well as their connections.

“This program is clearly the most highly regarded program of its kind in the country,” Kertes said. “The Giller winners come to Humber because it’s prestigious to teach at Humber.”

“It’s a star-studded cast of writers that we have,” said Antanas Sileika, director of the School for Writers, “It’s hard to assemble a pool of talent as profound as this one.”

Sileika said he actually approached Edugyan to teach at the school before she had won the Giller.

“I stumbled across Esi Edugyan when I was doing a review for the Literary Review of Canada,” Sileika said.

“I was handed her book to review and I thought, ‘she’s great,’ so I snatched her up as fast as I could.” continues Sileika.

Julie Booker, a former student at the school for writers, said attending Humber was key to her eventually getting her short-story collection Up, Up, Up, published this year.

Booker said although the workshop she attended was only a week long, her teacher, author Lisa Moore, had a profound impact on her and she learned some valuable writing skills.