World Literary Awards

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Governor General's Awards

Edition 86 (2021)

English-language fictionFrench-language fictionEnglish-language non-fictionFrench-language non-fictionEnglish-language poetryFrench-language poetryEnglish-language dramaFrench-language dramaChildren's literature (English)Children's literature (French)Children's illustration (English)Children's illustration (French)Translation (English↔French)Visual and Media ArtsPerforming ArtsMedals in ArchitectureHistory AwardsInnovation AwardsAwards in Commemoration of the Persons CaseAward in Celebration of the Nation's TableAcademic Medal and other specialized awards

Winners

14 people
Norma Dunning Winner
Tainna: The Unseen Ones

A short story collection illuminating Inuit experience south of the tundra, where six characters navigate alienation, displacement, and the pull of family and community.

Six stories trace Inuit lives in southern Canada.

160 pages
short storiesInuitalienationfamily
The Junta of Happenstance

"Personal, primordial, and pulsing with syncopated language, Tolu Oloruntoba's poetic debut, The Junta of Happenstance, is a compendium of dis-ease.

"Personal, primordial, and pulsing with syncopated language, Tolu Oloruntoba's poetic debut, The Junta of Happenstance, is a compendium of dis-ease.

80 pages

The archetypal student-teacher romance is cleverly turned on its head for the post-#MeToo era in this striking new play by the acclaimed author of What a Young Wife Ought to Know and Bunny.

The archetypal student-teacher romance is cleverly turned on its head for the post-#MeToo era in this striking new play by the acclaimed author of What a Young Wife Ought to Know and Bunny.

90 pages
alfabet/alphabet: a memoir of a first language

Alfabet / alphabet is the record of Sadiqa de Meijer's transition from speaking Dutch to English.

Alfabet / alphabet is the record of Sadiqa de Meijer's transition from speaking Dutch to English.

153 pages

A middle-grade novel about a girl named Firefly who is forced to rebuild her life at her aunt’s costume shop after a traumatic night separates her from her mother.

At her aunt’s costume shop, Firefly begins to ask what home and family mean.

206 pages
Children’s literaturefamilytrauma自己探求

A picture book about a boy and his grandfather visiting a trapline, where memory, land, and intergenerational connection come together.

A boy asks his grandfather what life was like on the trapline.

48 pages
picture book先住民memory祖父母
Erín Moure Winner

An English translation of Chantal Neveu’s long poem, moving through science, art, revolution, and the spaces between things to ask what it means to live together.

This long poem asks readers to let go of individuality in favor of mutuality.

225 pages
translationpoetrytimecollectivity
Fanny Britt Winner
Faire les sucres

Faire les sucres, au Québec, c’est exploiter une érablière.

Faire les sucres, au Québec, c’est exploiter une érablière.

211 pages
Pendant que Perceval tombait

Mourir ne dure qu'un instant.

Mourir ne dure qu'un instant.

Copeaux

ELLE je suis devenue l'ombre de moi l'ombre qui s'efface ses contours qui disparaissent dans la noirceur qui monte.

ELLE je suis devenue l'ombre de moi l'ombre qui s'efface ses contours qui disparaissent dans la noirceur qui monte.

A nonfiction portrait of northern truckers built from Serge Bouchard’s ethnographic research and transformed into a vivid account of road life, labor, and solitude.

Bouchard turns fieldwork on northern truckers into a vivid portrait of their world.

224 pages
nonfictionlaborroad culturenorthern Canada
Les avenues

Les avenues

Les avenues

310 pages

A poetic picture book in which Mila is carried back by childhood memories, while clouds become a quiet guide to where she has been and where she may go.

Clouds remind Mila of where she comes from and where she might go.

96 pages
picture bookmemorychildhoodloss

A poetry collection gathering decades of Elizabeth Smart’s work, tracing the tension between motherhood, authorship, and the difficult task of making room for a poetic voice.

Elizabeth Smart writes across decades of struggle, memory, and poetic endurance.

138 pages
poetry collectionwomenmemorywar