Author Alison Pick will serve on this year’s five-person Giller Prize jury (photo: Thies Bogner)

For the first time in its history, this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize jury will increase from three to five international and Canadian authors.

Alison Pick, Cecil Foster, and former Giller nominee Alexander MacLeod will be joined by British novelist Helen Oyeyemi and Ireland’s John Boyne, who will also act as jury chair.

In a press release, Giller Prize executive director Elana Rabinovitch says, “Expanding from three to five people gives the jury a chance to stretch a bit, allows for more and different perspectives and injects new vigour into the quality of the deliberations. Bringing more readers into the mix, gifted individuals with varied backgrounds and voices, is bound to bring a different level of discernment to the conversation about the books.”