Remembering Jack

Giller night is alarming, but Jack Rabinovitch was not an alarming man. Going on stage in 2007 was like going alone to a dance, only to be joined by a rumpled Bob Hope with the instincts of Fred Astaire.

Realizing I didn't know what to do, he took my elbow and directed me.

"You should thank the jurors," he said quietly. So I hugged the three jurors, one after the other. Then he took my elbow again and led me to the podium. There was nothing to worry about. He was right behind me and he was happy. He was especially happy if your book went on to sell many, many copies. Thanks to Jack, I put new windows in my house and graduated to $15 bottles of wine. Ten years later, it's clear to me that I am still riding on the coattails of this generous and influential man. – Elizabeth Hay won the prize in 2007 for Late Nights on Air.

This was in the fall of 2013. We were standing outside the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, just after that year's Giller long list announcement, and I asked Jack about Mordecai Richler. What had he been like? Irreverent, he replied at once, and brash, and brilliant. Warmest man you'd ever meet. "He'd see a man begging in the street and his guts would just twist. He would just feel horrible for the bastard. Couldn't pass by without giving him something, without at least trying." I remember the way his face opened up when he spoke about his old friend, the unconcealed pleasure in the praise. And I remember thinking at the time that Jack could have been describing himself: blunt, warm, audacious, a man whose outsized generosity worked a transformative magic on the landscape of Canadian letters. Jack was so vivid, so vital. There is no one like him. He will be much missed. – Esi Edugyan won the prize in 2011 for Half-Blood Blues.

As wonderful as it was to receive the Giller Prize, a greater honour occurred the following year when I was asked to present Jack with a lifetime-achievement award at the Canadian Booksellers Association dinner. He was so kind, so thoughtful, so genuine. – Will Ferguson won the prize in 2012 for 419.

In the midst of one of the most surreal moments of my life, being called up on stage to accept the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize, I remember one very real thing: Jack Rabinovitch's smile. I continue to be grateful for that smile, for Jack's kindness and for his tremendous belief in, and support of, the role of literature in our culture. Like so many others, my life has been touched and changed by Jack's sincere generosity. From the bottom of my heart: Thank you, Jack. You will be greatly missed, but never forgotten. – Johanna Skibsrud won the prize in 2010 for The Sentimentalists.

It's a sad loss, and with Ellen Seligman and Avie Bennett also gone, it surely marks the end of an era. I will always remember Jack's friendly, unassuming manner, his presence at the doorway at the Giller function, him getting up on the stage to announce the award and saying, "For the price of a dinner … " With a tribute to [his late wife] Doris [Giller], he changed the face of Canadian fiction, made it more exciting. The Giller Prize was a broad-minded, generous award that came at a time when Canadian literary awards and the Canadian mainstream were narrow and introverted. It certainly changed my life. – M.G. Vassanji won the prize in 1994 for The Book of Secrets and in 2003 for The In-Between World of Vikram Lall.

Jack was an amazing and generous man. I knew him, of course, through the Giller Prize and through books. He was a lifeline for the world of books. Not only did he offer his wonderful prize and the money that went with it, but he was a reader. He always read the books that were on the list and would inevitably quote from them. He was huge in my life and huge in the life of literature in Canada. He will be greatly missed. – David Bergen won the prize in 2005 for The Time in Between.

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Jack was ever kind, ever joyful at the Giller, and the spirit of celebration he tried to instill in our community is one I cherish. The Giller Prize was an act of love. For those fortunate enough to be nominated, our work found an audience – often for the first time. Jack's love of literature, and of this place we're writing from, has sustained so many writers. I just feel enormously sad. I remember, when I went up on stage last year to accept the Giller, that he just gave me such reassurance, such grounding. And he was clearly overjoyed to give so much to a writer, as if it were him receiving this beautiful gift. – Madeleine Thien won the prize in 2016 for Do Not Say We Have Nothing.

Jack Rabinovitch and Doris Giller were heroes to so many writers. I knew her before I met Jack, but both were similar in that they loved books, loved the good times and there was no bullshit attached to them. They came out of the great Montreal literary tradition that included names such as Mordecai Richler, Mavis Gallant and Leonard Cohen and they spread the word across the country. – Michael Ondaatje won the prize in 2000 for Anil's Ghost.

Let's be clear: No one is ever obligated to give their time and energy to create something as prestigious as the Giller Prize, but Jack Rabinovitch did. I think in honouring the memory of his wife he wanted to show Canadians how vital and alive the written word could be. In doing so his spirit was revealed to all Canadians; that of a generous patron, a loyal husband and friend, and a great man. I will always remember his kindness to writers from all walks of life. And writers from all walks of life benefited from his simple unaffected goodness. – David Adams Richards won the prize in 2000 for Mercy Among the Children.

Jack changed my life and whenever I told him so he showed this sheer, effervescent delight – as if it was I who had given the gift to him. He changed Canadian literature with his vision, kindness and sheer force of will. He will be deeply missed. – Sean Michaels won the prize in 2014 for Us Conductors.

We tend to treat the Giller Prize as an abstraction. We argue about whether it's justified to give "Writer X" this amount of money or that. We argue about the value of awards in general and about the impossibility of assessing which work of fiction is "more deserving" of money, which work is "not worthy" of the remuneration.

These arguments are good. They get us to consider – every year – the place of fiction in our society. We get to question if our stories mean anything deeper to us than entertainment, if fiction is meant simply to give pleasure or make us think or engage us in civic ways.

The Giller Prize has been at the centre of these arguments in Canada for some time now and, for that alone, Jack Rabinovitch deserves our thanks. Whatever one thinks about the prize ceremony, it is a yearly invitation to think about writing, writers and the legacy of fiction.

For me, as a recent winner, this has all been intensified. The prize has been a spur to rethink about my work, my commitment to fiction, my sense of what fiction is. Far from reassuring me that I'm a "good writer" – whatever that is – winning the Giller has made me wonder about writing itself. It's thrown me off balance. And it has irrevocably changed the context of my work. For one thing, people take me more seriously – a sometimes frightening thought.

I never got the chance to tell Mr. Rabinovitch any of this. I didn't know him well. The last time we spoke was on stage as I took his cheque and thanked him for it. But his faith in the value of fiction is what strikes me, now. I think it was profound. – André Alexis won the prize in 2015 for Fifteen Dogs.