An instructor with the University of Guelph-Humber’s MFA program in creative writing and one of its graduates have been short-listed for this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Instructor Michael Winter was selected for his novel Minister Without Portfolio. MFA graduate Elisabeth De Mariaffi was chosen for her collection of short stories How to Get Along With Women.

Winter is the author of several books, including The Architects Are Here, which was previously long-listed for the Giller Prize. The Big Why was long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and The Death of Donna Whale was nominated for the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. He is also the recipient of the Writers’ Trust Notable Author Award.

Mariaffi’s fiction has been published in The New Quarterly, The Fiddlehead, This Magazine and The Puritan. A former host of the popular Pivot at the Toronto Press Club reading series, she currently lives in St. John’s, Nfld. How to Get Along With Women is her first book.

The Scotiabank Giller Prize awards $50,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English, and $5,000 to each of the finalists. The award is named in honour of the late literary journalist Doris Giller and was founded in 1994 by her husband, Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch. The Giller short list will be announced Oct. 8 in Toronto.