This is a summary of the year 2008 in Canadian literature.
Events January 8 - A television series based on Douglas Coupland's novel jPod debuts on CBC Television. February 29 - Paul Quarrington's 1987 novel King Leary wins the 2008 edition of Canada Reads. June 12 - Rawi Hage's 2006 novel De Niro's Game wins the 2008 International Dublin Literary Award. July 1 - Writers Maria Campbell, George Elliott Clarke and Audrey Thomas are inducted into the Order of Canada. November 11 - Joseph Boyden's novel Through Black Spruce wins the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize. November 18 - 2008 Governor General's Awards.
Books
Fiction David Adams Richards, The Lost Highway André Alexis, Asylum David Bergen, The Retreat Joseph Boyden, Through Black Spruce Austin Clarke, More Anthony De Sa, Barnacle Love Cory Doctorow, Little Brother Emma Donoghue, The Sealed Letter Marina Endicott, Good to a Fault Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo Bill Gaston, The Order of Good Cheer Rawi Hage, Cockroach Kenneth J. Harvey, Blackstrap Hawco Maggie Helwig, Girls Fall Down Mark Anthony Jarman, My White Planet Ibi Kaslik, The Angel Riots Patrick Lane, Red Dog, Red Dog Pasha Malla, The Withdrawal Method Andrew Pyper, The Killing Circle Paul Quarrington, The Ravine Nino Ricci, The Origin of Species Robert J. Sawyer, Identity Theft and Other Stories Mary Swan, The Boys in the Trees Miriam Toews, The Flying Troutmans
Non-fiction Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth Stephen Clarkson, My Life as a Dame: The Personal and the Political in the Writings of Christina McCall Charles Foran, Join the Revolution, Comrade Mark Frutkin, Erratic North: A Vietnam Draft Resister's Life in the Canadian Bush Stephen Henighan, A Report on the Afterlife of Culture Val Ross, Robertson Davies: A Portrait in Mosaic Norman Snider, The Roaring Eighties and Other Good Times Drew Hayden Taylor, Me Sexy: An Exploration of Native Sex and Sexuality
Poetry R. M. Vaughan, Troubled
Deaths February 17 - Val Ross, writer and journalist June 11 - James Reaney, novelist July 14 - Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite, writer and musician
References