Finalists for the Governor General's Literary Awards

I'm about a week late on this,  but the Governor General's Literary Award finalists were announced last week. The GGs award prizes for both English- and French-language work in seven categories: fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry, children's text, children's illustration, and translation.

Both Esi Edugyan and Patrick deWitt made the fiction shortlist, which means they're each finalists for Fall's four major literary awards: the Man Booker Prize, the Giller Prize, the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and now the GG. I still have not read Edugyan's book, but I loved deWitt's and it was probably my most recommended book this summer. Apparently, I was not alone in that. Actually, several of these nominated books have shown up on other longlists and shortlists this season, but it really is nice to see that no two lists are the same.

Here are the English-language finalists (click here for French-language finalists).

Fiction

• David Bezmozgis, The Free World (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers (House of Anansi Press)
• Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers)
• Marina Endicott, The Little Shadows (Doubleday Canada)
• Alexi Zentner, Touch (Knopf Canada)

Nonfiction

• Charles Foran, Mordecai: The Life and Times (Knopf Canada)
• Nathan M. Greenfield, The Damned: The Canadians at the Battle of Hong Kong and the POW Experience 1941-45 (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Richard Gwyn, Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times (Random House Canada)
• J. J. Lee, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit (McClelland & Stewart)
• Andrew Nikiforuk, The Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug are Killing North America's Great Forests (Greystone Books)

Poetry

• Michael Boughn, Cosmographia: A Post-Lucretian Faux Mini-Epic (BookThug)
• Kate Eichhorn, Fieldnotes, A Forensic (BookThug)
• Phil Hall, Killdeer (BookThug)
• Garry Thomas Morse, Discovery Passages (Talonbooks)
• Susan Musgrave, Origami Dove (McClelland & Stewart)

Drama

• Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, Gas Girls (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Brendan Gall, Minor Complications: Two Plays (Coach House Books)
• Jonathan Garfinkel, House of Many Tongues (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Erin Shields, If We Were Birds (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Vern Thiessen, Lenin's Embalmers (Playwrights Canada Press)

Children's Text

• Jan L. Coates, A Hare in the Elephant's Trunk (Red Deer Press)
• Deborah Ellis, No Ordinary Day (HarperCollins Canada)
• Christopher Moore, From Then to Now: A Short History of the World (Tundra Books)
• Kenneth Oppel, This Dark Endeavour (HarperCollins Canada)
• Tim Wynne-Jones, Blink & Caution (Candlewick Press)

Children's Illustration

• Isabelle Arsenault, Migrant (Groundwood Books)
• Kim La Fave, Fishing With Gubby (Harbour Publishing)
• Renata Liwska, Red Wagon (Philomel Books)
• Frank Viva, Along a Long Road (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Cybèle Young, Ten Birds (Kids Can Press)

Translation (French to English)

• Judith Cowan, Meridian Line (Signal Editions)
• David Scott Hamilton, Exit (Anvil Press)
• Lazer Lederhendler, Apocalypse for Beginners (Vintage Canada)
• Lazer Lederhendler, Dirty Feet (McGill-Queen's University Press)
• Donald Winkler, Partita for Glenn Gould (McGill-Queen's University Press)

The winners will be announced at Rideau Hall on Nov. 15. Each winner will receive $25,000 and the publisher of each winning book will receive $3,000 for promoting. Every non-winning finalist receives $1,000.