Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction explained
The Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a non-fiction book written in English. Since 1987 it is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, seven each for creators of English- and French-language books. Originally presented by the Canadian Authors Association, the Governor General's Awards program became a project of the Canada Council for the Arts in 1959.
The program was created in 1937 and inaugurated that November for 1936 publications in two English-language categories, conventionally called the 1936 Governor General's Awards. Beginning in 1942 there were two winners annually, with separate awards presented for creative non-fiction and academic non-fiction;[1] however, this was discontinued after the 1958 awards, and then returned to a single non-fiction category.
The winners alone were announced until 1979, when Canada Council released in advance a shortlist of three nominees. Since then, the advance shortlist has numbered three to five.
Winners and nominees
1930s
1940s
Author!width="50%"| Title |
| 1940 | | Slava Bohu |
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| 1941 | | Klee Wyck |
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| 1942 | | |
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| 1943 | | On Canadian Poetry |
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| 1944 | | Partner in Three Worlds |
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| 1945 | | Gauntlet to Overlord |
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| We Keep a Light |
| 1946 | | In Search of Myself |
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| Colony to Nation |
| 1947 | | Haida |
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| 1948 | | Halifax, Warden of the North |
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| 1949 | | Cross-country |
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| Democratic Government in Canada | |
1950s
Author!width="50%"| Title |
| 1950 | | |
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| 1951 | | |
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| 1952 | | John A. Macdonald, The Young Politician |
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| 1953 | | Canada, A Story of Challenge |
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| Sex and the Nature of Things |
| 1954 | | Thirty and Three |
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| This Most Famous Stream |
| 1955 | | Man's Emerging Mind |
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| John A. Macdonald, The Old Chieftain |
| 1956 | | |
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| Century of Conflict |
| 1957 | | |
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| Canada: Tomorrow's Giant |
| 1958 | | Klondike |
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| 1959 | No award presented | |
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1960s
1970s
1980s
Author!width="50%"| Title |
| 1980 | | Discipline of Power: The Conservative Interlude and the Liberal Restoration |
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| Portrait of a People |
| Scotland Farewell: The People of the Hector |
| 1981 | | Caribou and the Barren-Lands |
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| Hugh MacLennan: A Writer's Life |
| 1982 | | Louisbourg Portraits: Life in an Eighteenth- Century Garrison Town |
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| Grits: An Intimate Portrait of The Liberal Party |
| 1983 | | Byng of Vimy: General and Governor General |
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| Reading from Left to Right: One Man's Political History |
| 1984 | Sandra Gwyn | |
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| and Rod Macleod | Prairie Fire: The 1885 North-West Rebellion |
| P.Q.: René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois in Power |
| 1985 | | |
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| Prelude to Quebec's Quiet Revolution: Liberalism versus Neo-nationalism |
| Canada 1922-1939: Decades of Discord |
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| 1986 | | Northrop Frye on Shakespeare |
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| Melanie Klein |
| Home |
| 1987 | | |
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| Under Eastern Eyes |
| Brazilian Journal |
| 1988 | | In the Sleep Room |
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| When Freedoms Collide |
| Fishing with John |
| 1989 | | Willie: The Life of W. Somerset Maugham |
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| Wombs and Alien Spirits |
| Wordstruck |
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1990s
Author!width="50%"| Title |
| 1990 | and Christina McCall | Trudeau and Our Times |
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| Inside Memory: Pages from a Writer's Workbook |
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| God's Dominion: A Sceptic's Quest |
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| 1991 | and Robert Calihoo | Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past |
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| Words With Power |
| Zero Hour |
| Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography of the Author of "The Vampyre" |
| By Heart: Elizabeth Smart, A Life |
| 1992 | | Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm |
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| Plague: A Story of Smallpox in Montreal |
| Inside: The Biography of John Gunther |
| Mr. Sam: The Life and Times of Samuel Bronfman |
| 1993 | | Touch the Dragon |
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| In a Gilded Cage |
| Systems of Survival |
| Frontiers |
| 1994 | | Rogue Primate: An Exploration of Human Domestication |
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| Light for a Cold Land: Lawren Harris's Work and Life-An Interpretation |
| 1995 | | Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen |
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| Shooting the Hippo |
| Leaning on the Wind |
| 1996 | | |
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| After the First Death: A Journey Through Chile, Time, Mind |
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| 1997 | | Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood |
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| One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest |
| Morgentaler: A Difficult Hero |
| This Ragged Place: Travels Across the Landscape |
| and Bill Waiser | Loyal Till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion |
| 1998 | | Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi |
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| Mrs. King: The Life and Times of Isabel Mackenzie King |
| Mamie's Children: Three Generations of Prairie Women |
| and Yvonne Johnson | Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman |
| 1999 | | Water |
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| Surpassing Wonder |
| William Osler |
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| Baltimore's Mansion | |
2000s
Author!width="50%"| Title | Ref. |
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| 2000 | | Notes from the Hyena's Belly | |
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| River in a Dry Land | |
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| 2001 | | | |
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| Grain of Truth: The Ancient Lessons of Craft | |
| Reading Pictures: A History of Love and Hate | |
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| 2002 | | Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil | |
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| Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain | |
| Starting Out in the Afternoon: A Mid-Life Journey into Wild Land | |
| When Words Deny the World: The Reshaping of Canadian Writing | |
| Vis à Vis: Field Notes on Poetry & Wilderness | |
| 2003 | | Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World | |
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| While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World | |
| Vancouver, for Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister | |
| Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling | |
| 2004 | | Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda | |
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| I'll Tell You a Secret: A Memory of Seven Summers | |
| Acquainted With the Night: Excursions Through the World After Dark | |
| Dark Age Ahead | |
| Wisdom & Metaphor | |
| 2005 | | | [2] |
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| Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books | |
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| Written in the Flesh: A History of Desire | |
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| 2006 | | | |
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| and Robert Renaud | Starlight Tour: The Last, Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild | |
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| 2007 | | I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad | |
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| and Christian Pearce | Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent | |
| Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume One: 1919-1968 | |
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| Silence of the Songbirds: How We Are Losing the World's Songbirds and What We Can Do to Save Them | |
| 2008 | | Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army | [3] |
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| God’s Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal and the Dream of Discovery | |
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| 2009 | | | [4] |
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| Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-45 | |
| Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds | |
| American Raj: Liberation or Domination? (Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World) | |
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2010s
Author!width="50%"| Title | Ref. |
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| 2010 | | | |
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| Burmese Lessons: A Love Story | |
| Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-2000 | |
| 2011 | | Mordecai: The Life and Times | |
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| Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times, Volume Two: 1867-1891 | |
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| Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests | |
| 2012 | | Leonardo and the Last Supper | [5] |
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| Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest | |
| What We Talk About When We Talk About War | |
| 2013 | | Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page | [6] |
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| Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother | |
| 2014 | | | [7] |
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| and Alexandra Shimo | Up Ghost River: A Chief’s Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History | |
| Know the Night: A Memoir of Survival in the Small Hours | |
| 2015 | | Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive | [8] |
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| Dispatches from the Front: Matthew Halton, Canada's Voice at War | |
| Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada's Radical Makeover | |
| Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing into Thunderbird | |
| 2016 | | | |
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| Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (To Everyone) | |
| In-Between Days: A Memoir about Living with Cancer | [9] |
| Firewater: How Alcohol is Killing My People (and Yours) | |
| Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World | |
| 2017 | | | |
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| Where I Live Now: A Journey through Love and Loss to Healing and Hope | |
| Where It Hurts | |
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| All We Leave Behind: A Reporter's Journey into the Lives of Others | |
| 2018 | | Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age | [10] |
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| Dead Reckoning: How I Came To Meet the Man Who Murdered My Father | |
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| Heart Berries | |
| and Winnie Yeung | Homes: A Refugee Story | |
| 2019 | | To the River: Losing My Brother | [11] |
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| Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father | |
| Tiny Lights for Travellers | |
| Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times | |
| City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands | | |
2020s
External links
Notes and References
- News: Win Governor-General's Literary Awards. Victoria Times-Colonist. June 19, 1943. 4. Newspapers.com. January 10, 2019.
- Web site: November 17, 2005 . Awards, Part 2: The Governor General's . 2022-10-13 . Shelf Awareness.
- Web site: November 19, 2008 . Awards: Governor General Winners . 2022-10-13 . Shelf Awareness.
- Web site: November 18, 2009 . Awards: Man Asian Literary Prize; Governor General's Awards . 2022-10-13 . Shelf Awareness .
- Web site: November 19, 2012 . Awards: Governor General's; Hilary Weston; New Mexico and Ariz. . 2022-10-13 . Shelf Awareness.
- Web site: November 15, 2013 . Awards: Governor General's Literary; Goldsmiths . 2022-10-13 . Shelf Awareness.
- Web site: November 21, 2014 . Awards: Governor General's Literary . 2022-10-13 . Shelf Awareness .
- Web site: October 29, 2015 . Awards: Governor General's Literary . 2022-10-13 . Shelf Awareness.
- Web site: May 8, 2019 . Obituary Note: Teva Harrison . 2022-10-13 . Shelf Awareness.
- Web site: October 31, 2018 . Awards: Governor General's Literary Winners . 2022-10-13 . Shelf Awareness.
- Web site: October 30, 2019 . Awards: Governor General's Literary; Warwick Women in Translation . 2022-10-13 . Shelf Awareness.
- https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/michelle-good-says-celebrating-fiction-win-feels-petty-and-selfish-after-residential-school-discovery-1.5450932 "Michelle Good says celebrating fiction win feels 'petty and selfish' after residential school discovery"
- https://www.cbc.ca/books/francesca-ekwuyasi-billy-ray-belcourt-anne-carson-among-2020-governor-general-s-literary-awards-finalists-1.6004149 "Francesca Ekwuyasi, Billy-Ray Belcourt & Anne Carson among 2020 Governor General's Literary Awards finalists"
- https://www.coastreporter.net/the-mix/inuk-author-norma-dunning-wins-25k-governor-generals-fiction-prize-4766110 "Inuk author Norma Dunning wins $25K Governor General's fiction prize"
- https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2021/10/14/rachel-cusk-among-fiction-finalists-for-governor-generals-literary-awards.html "Rachel Cusk among fiction finalists for Governor General’s Literary Awards"
- Deborah Dundas, "Sheila Heti, Eli Baxter win 2022 Governor General’s Literary Awards for fiction and non-fiction". Toronto Star, November 16, 2022.
- Web site: October 12, 2022. The finalists for the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction. October 12, 2022. CBC Books.
- https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/anuja-varghese-wins-governor-generals-literary-award-for-fiction/article_1bb0f610-14e9-5ee7-9f19-68bcbfe555f8.html "Anuja Varghese wins Governor General's literary award for fiction"
- https://www.burnabynow.com/the-mix/suzette-mayr-iain-reid-among-finalists-for-governor-generals-literary-awards-7732654 "Suzette Mayr, Iain Reid among finalists for Governor General's Literary Awards"
