Esi Edugyan wins Canadian literature award

[November 09, 2011]  TORONTO (AP) -- Esi Edugyan has won one of Canada's most prestigious literary awards for a novel about a group of black jazz musicians trying to survive in Europe during World War II.

Edugyan won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her book "Half-Blood Blues" on Tuesday. She thanked her father, Kweku, an immigrant from Ghana who brought his family to Canada in the 1970s.

The five others on the short list included one by Michael Ondaatje.

"Half-Blood Blues" also landed on the short list for the Man Booker Prize.

The $50,000 Giller prize honors Canadian fiction. Past winners have included Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler and Alice Munro.

[Associated Press]

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