This essay asks “Is oblique solidarity enough?” in response to Anne Michaels’ multiple declarations of solidarity in her acceptance speech for the 2024 Giller Prize. Michaels’ novel, Held, won in the context of a year-long controversy around the continued sponsorship of the prize by Scotiabank—with its investment in an Israeli arms manufacturing company—that resulted in calls for the Giller Foundation and other arts organizations sponsored by the bank to divest. Indeed, as the war in Palestine worsened, many writers boycotted the 2024 Giller Prize altogether. Arguing for the significance of this fractured time in Canadian literary history, this essay archives the controversy and closely reads Michaels’ acceptance speech beside the work of CanLit Responds, No Arms in the Arts, Omar El Akkad in One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, and others. This is an essay about the limits of solidarity, the work of community organization, and the voice of the artist in times of crisis.
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