Souvankham Thammavongsa holds the 2025 Giller Prize. (Ryan Emberley Photography)

For the second time in five years, Souvankham Thammavongsa has been named the winner of the $100,000 Giller Prize. 

Thammavongsa, who won the Giller in 2020 for her debut short story collection How to Pronounce Knife, was named the winner at a ceremony in Toronto on Nov. 17 for her debut novel Pick a Colour. The novel, about a boxer cum manicurist, takes place in a Toronto nail salon over the course of a day. 

“When I was a kid I didn’t know how to become a writer,” Thammavongsa said. “My mom and dad are not writers. I printed and bound my own books, sold them out of my school knapsack on front lawns, at farmers markets, and at small press fairs. Thank you to anyone who has ever bought a book that I made.”

Thammavongsa was one of five writers shortlisted for this year’s prize. The other four – Mona Awad who was shortlisted for We Love You, Bunny; Eddy Boudel Tan, shortlisted for The Tiger and the Cosmonaut; Emma Donoghue, shortlisted for The Paris Express; and Emma Knight, shortlisted for The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus – each receive $10,000.

This year’s books were chosen by a jury comprised of chair, author, and professor Dionne Irving, and writers Loghan Paylor and Deepa Rajagopalan. In their citation, the jury called Thammavongsa “a master of form and restraint.”

“In this exquisite novel, intelligence isn’t inherited through education, status, or privilege–it’s earned,” they wrote. “With an inimitable style that decentralizes the English language, crackling wit, and profound confidence, author Souvankham Thammavongsa challenges our biases and insists that we never look at a nail salon, or its workers, the same way again.”

Monday’s ceremony marks the first time the prize was awarded since title sponsor Scotiabank parted ways with the Giller Foundation earlier this year.