After a blistering few days of debates, the Canada Reads 2023 winner has been crowned.
Jeopardy! star Mattea Roach has won Canada Reads 2023. In an emotional finale, the book they championed, Kate Beaton’s 2022 graphic memoir Ducks, survived the elimination vote on March 30, 2023.
Roach successfully argued that Ducks — an autobiographical graphic memoir that recounts author Beaton’s time spent working in the Alberta oil sands — best fits the Canada Reads 2023 theme as the “one book to shift your perspective.” After getting a job in the camps to pay off her student debt, she recounts her experiences with economic migration, sexism and environmental destruction through an illustrated narrative.
“Going out there, I knew that I wasn’t going to have a good time. I knew I wasn’t gonna like it, but I knew that I should be grateful for the job I was going to get. The fact that somebody was going to hire me and give me money was the good thing. Back home, they were calling it things like ‘money jail,'” Beaton told Shelagh Rogers during an interview on The Next Chapter.
LISTEN | Kate Beaton talks to Shelagh Rogers about Ducks:
The Next Chapter12:58Kate Beaton on Ducks
Kate Beaton talks to Shelagh Rogers about her graphic memoir Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands.
Ducks is the first book in a comics style ever to win Canada Reads. Jeff Lemire’s Essex County, the only graphic novel to appear in the debates, was voted off in the first round in 2011. It was defended by Sara Quin.
In 2022, Ducks was named a top Canadian comic by CBC Books and was also one of two Canadian books on Barack Obama’s list of favourite books of 2022.
“We are all implicated in the story Ducks tells. Ducks is one woman’s story, but it is the story of an industry that we all rely on in some way. Whether we are people living in Alberta who go to work in the sands … Whether we’re people that live in central Canada who benefit from the wealth this industry creates. We are all implicated,” Roach said during Canada Reads 2023 finale.
“The issues of my book that take place in 2008, they’re happening right now. If you want to change perspective now, action follows suit,” Beaton told the CBC in an interview after learning that Ducks had won.
6:13Jeopardy! and Canada Reads champion Mattea Roach defends Kate Beaton’s Ducks
Jeopardy! and Canada Reads champion Mattea Roach joins Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about their love for Kate Beaton’s graphic novel Ducks, and who might make a strong ally in this year’s competition.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel was the runner-up. Actor, director and choreographer Michael Greyeyes championed the novel.
Station Eleven is a dystopian novel that takes place on an Earth undone by disease, following the interconnected lives of several characters — actors, artists and those closest to them — before and after the plague. One travels the wasteland performing Shakespearean plays with a troupe, while another attempts to build community at an abandoned airport and another amasses followers for a dangerous cause.
Mandel’s other novels include The Glass Hotel, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and Sea of Tranquility, which was one of two Canadian books on Barack Obama’s list of favourite books of 2022. Station Eleven was adapted into a TV series for HBO Max.
While Mandel’s book is already highly successful, Roach ultimately won 3-2 on the final day.
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Jeopardy! super-champion, writer, and podcast host Mattea Roach will champion Ducks by Kate Beaton on Canada Reads 2023.
Roach is the most successful Canadian competitor in Jeopardy! history. In the spring of 2022, they won a record-setting 23 games. They appeared in the 2022 edition of Jeopardy!‘s tournament of champions and will star in the Jeopardy! Masters spin-off. They are also a writer and podcast host. They are originally from Halifax, but currently live in Toronto.
The Canada Reads 2023 winner was a strong defender of Ducks throughout the debates, arguing for the advantages of the graphic memoir medium while also acknowledging the merits of the other books in contention. Ultimately, they put an effective case forward for why Beaton’s book should be the one every Canadian reads right now.
“It’s the story of an industry we use every day,” they said during the finale.
Canada Reads31:36Canada Reads 2023: Get to know Ducks
In this introduction to the comic Ducks by Kate Beaton, discover what the book is about and why Jeopardy! Super-champion Mattea Roach chose it for Canada Reads 2023.
Beaton launched her career by publishing the comic strip Hark! A Vagrant online. The webcomic, which touched on historical and literary topics with comedic flair, gained a following of 500,000 monthly visitors and was eventually turned into a bestselling book. Her success continued with the collection Step Aside, Pops! and two children’s books, King Baby and The Princess and the Pony.
The other three books were eliminated earlier in the week. Horror novel Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia was eliminated on Day One having been championed by TikTok creator Tasnim Geedi. Michael Christie’s Greenwood, championed by actor and filmmaker Keegan Connor Tracy, was eliminated on Day Two, and Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah, which was championed by Bhangra dancer and viral video star Gurdeep Pandher, was voted off on Day Three.
This year’s show was hosted by Ali Hassan. The contenders and their chosen books are:
WARNING: The books chosen for Canada Reads deal with difficult topics, such as trauma and abuse. These stories may be shared during the broadcast. Click this link to find publicly available resources for support.
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