What a difference a year makes: last year I was at the Harbourfront Centre watching the Giller Prize on a big screen TV with various Canadian publishing types. This year...I forgot about it till I saw a newswire article about it. So mea culpa for my short-term memory and to wit, the winner of Canada's glitziest (and most lucrative) prize for literature is David Bergen. The 48-year old Winnipeg schoolteacher won for THE TIME IN BETWEEN, "story about a brother and sister who travel to Southeast Asia to look for their father, a Vietnam veteran who has disappeared there."

He got 40 grand; the runners-up, Joan Barfoot, Camilla Gibb, Edeet Ravel and Lisa Moore, take home $2,500 each. Before the ceremony, all five were interviewed by the Canadian Press about the ceremony, which is more about hoopla and glamour than anything else.