Literary award · Canada · since 1936

Governor General's Literary Awards

Canadian literary award. Established 1936 in Canada.

About Governor General's Literary Awards

The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the governor general of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the Lord Tweedsmuir, a prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction; he created the Governor General's Literary Award with two award categories. Successive governors general have followed suit, establishing an award for whichever endeavour they personally found important. Only Adrienne Clarkson created three Governor General's Awards: the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, the Governor General's Northern Medal, and the Governor General's Medal in Architecture (though this was effectively a continuation of the Massey Medal, first established in 1950).

From the Wikipedia article “Governor General's Awards”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Recent winners

YearWinnerWinning work
2020Five Little Indians—
2020Nahid Kazemi—
2019Mishka Lavigne—
2019Don Gillmor—
2019Erin Bow—
2019Gwen Benaway—
2019Linda Gaboriau—
2019Céline Huyghebaert—
2018Jordan Tannahill—
2018Jillian Tamaki—
2018Jonathan Auxier—
2018Anne-Marie Olivier—
2018Marianne Dubuc—
2018Karoline Georges—
2018Sarah Henstra—

From Wikidata; the list may be incomplete for some years.

Eligibility and entering

Check the official rules of the Governor General's Literary Awards for the current eligibility window, accepted formats, residency or language requirements and any entry fee. For most established prizes the publisher submits on the author's behalf, often with a limit on entries per imprint.

If you are self-published, look for an explicit statement that independently published books are accepted, and budget for entry fees and copies for judges.

Sources & data