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Deepa Rajagopalan in Conversation with Merilyn Simonds

About Deepa Rajagopalan

Deepa Rajagopalan is the author of the short story collection, Peacocks of Instagram, which was shortlisted for the 2024 Giller prize, Canada’s most distinguished literary award. She won the 2021 PEN Canada New Voices Award for the title story of the collection. Her work has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies such as the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology, the New Quarterly, Room, the Malahat Review, Event, and Arc.

Deepa has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph. Born to Indian parents in Saudi Arabia, she has lived in many cities across India, the US, and Canada. She works in the tech industry in Toronto.

Peacocks of Instagram by Rajagopalan Deepa
Peacocks of Instragram
was short listed for the
2024 Giller Prize.

About the Giller Prize

The Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch in honor of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller, who passed away from cancer the year before. The award recognized excellence in Canadian fiction—long format or short stories—and endowed a cash prize annually of $25,000.00, the largest purse for literature in the country.

The launch of The Giller Prize coincided with a growing recognition of Canadian authors and literature both at home and abroad. Acclaimed writers such as Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and Mordecai Richler were winning honours and accolades around the world. The time seemed ripe to celebrate the success of these and other homegrown writers within these borders, with a bold statement of support and recognition.

The Giller Prize, along with many other awards that came before and after, is in part responsible for the continued growth of Canadian literary talent. The prize has so far endowed more than three-quarters of a million dollars to Canadian writers from coast to coast.