The 2019 Governor General’s Literary Awards largely shelved the bestsellers and publicity juggernauts of 2019 in favour of quieter literary releases. One notable exception: Michael Crummey’s novel The Innocents, recognized on the English Fiction shortlist, has been shortlisted for the Rogers Writer’s Trust Fiction Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, minting it as the only English book to be competing for all three major fall fiction prizes.

The 14 category winners will receive $25,000 and their publishers will receive $3,000 to promote their winning title. Each finalist receives $1,000. The winners will be announced Oct. 29 and will be followed by a ceremony at Rideau Hall, hosted by Governor General Julie Payette, on Dec. 12.

The complete list of finalists and category juries follows. Quill & Quire congratulates our Agony Editor columnist Brian Francis, whose new young-adult novel Break in Case of Emergency was shortlisted for Young People’s Literature – Text.

2019 English-language finalists 

Fiction
Jury: Aislinn Hunter, Wayne Johnston, and Saleema Nawaz

• Eye, Marianne Micros (Guernica Editions)
• Five Wives, Joan Thomas (Harper Avenue/HarperCollins)
• Late Breaking, K.D. Miller (Biblioasis)
• The Innocents, Michael Crummey (Doubleday Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
• The Student, Cary Fagan (Freehand Books)

Poetry
Jury: Lesley Belleau, Méira Cook, and Allan Cooper

• Holy Wild, Gwen Benaway (Book*hug)
• How to Avoid Huge Ships, Julie Bruck (Brick Books)
• St. Boniface Elegies, Catherine Hunter (Signature Editions)
• The Grand River Watershed: A Folk Ecology, Karen Houle (Gaspereau Press)
• Treaty #, Armand Garnet Ruffo (Buckrider Books/Wolsak and Wynn Publishers)

Drama
Jury: Maja Ardal, Megan Gail Coles, and Curtis Peeteetuce

• 1 Hour Photo, Tetsuro Shigematsu (Talonbooks)
• Other Side of the Game, Amanda Parris (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Thanks for Giving, Kevin Loring (Talonbooks)
• The Fighting Season, Sean Harris Oliver (Scirocco Drama/J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)
• What a Young Wife Ought to Know, Hannah Moscovitch (Playwrights Canada)

Non-Fiction
Jury: Ross King, Rachel Lebowitz and Marina Nemat

• City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands, Dan Werb (Bloomsbury)
• Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times, Alan Walker (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father, Brian Harvey (ECW Press)
• Tiny Lights for Travellers, Naomi K. Lewis (University of Alberta Press)
• To the River: Losing My Brother, Don Gillmor (Random House Canada/PRHC)

Young People’s Literature – Text
Jury: Kagiso Lesego Molope, Kenneth Oppel, and Ellen Schwartz

• Break in Case of Emergency, Brian Francis (HarperCollins)
• Cold White Sun, Sue Farrell Holler (Groundwood Books)
• Girl of the Southern Sea, Michelle Kadarusman (Pajama Press)
• Stand on the Sky, Erin Bow (Scholastic Canada)
• The Grey Sisters, Jo Treggiari (Penguin Teen/Penguin Random House Canada Young Readers)

Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books
Jury: Shauntay Grant, Jon Klassen, and Kathryn Shoemaker

• Albert’s Quiet Quest, Isabelle Arsenault (Tundra Books/Penguin Random House Canada Young Readers)
• Birdsong, Julie Flett (Greystone Books)
• How to Give Your Cat a Bath, Nicola Winstanley and John Martz (Tundra Books/Penguin Random House Canada Young Readers)
• King Mouse, Cary Fagan and Dena Seiferling (Tundra Books/Penguin Random House Canada Young Readers)
• Small in the City, Sydney Smith (Groundwood Books)

Translation (from French to English)
Jury: Nicola Danby, Wayne Grady and Maureen Labonté

• 887, Robert Lepage and Louisa Blair, trans. (House of Anansi Press)
• Birds of a Kind, Wajdi Mouawad and Linda Gaboriau, trans. (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Synapses, Simon Brousseau and Pablo Strauss (trans.) (Talonbooks)
• The Embalmer, Anne-Renée Caillé and Rhonda Mullins (trans.) (Coach House Books)
• Vi, Kim Thúy and Sheila Fischman (Random House Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)

2019 French-language finalists (seven categories)

Fiction
Jury: Hervé Bouchard, Blaise Ndala, and Élise Turcotte

• La Minotaure, Mariève Maréchale (Triptyque/Groupe Nota bene)
• La terre, Sylvie Drapeau (Leméac Éditeur)
• Le drap blanc, Céline Huyghebaert (Le Quartanier)
• Maisons fauves, Éléonore Goldberg (Triptyque/Groupe Nota bene)
• Mina parmi les ombres, Edem Awumey (Les Éditions du Boréal)

Poetry
Jury: Nora Atalla, Maggie Roussel, and Christian Roy

• Fastes, Chloé Savoie-Bernard (L’Hexagone/Groupe Ville-Marie Littérature)
• La cuisine mortuaire, Louise Marois (Triptyque, Groupe Nota bene)
• La part habitée du ciel, Michel Létourneau (Écrits des Forges)
• Le tendon et l’os, Anne-Marie Desmeules (L’Hexagone, Groupe Ville-Marie Littérature)
• Portages, Louis-Thomas Plamondon (La Peuplade)

Drama
Jury: Normand Canac-Marquis, Miriam Cusson, and Talia Hallmona

• ColoniséEs, Annick Lefebvre (Dramaturges Éditeurs)
• Et si un soir, Lisa L’Heureux (Éditions Prise de parole)
• Havre, Mishka Lavigne (Les Éditions L’Interligne)
• La nuit du 4 au 5, Rachel Graton (Dramaturges Éditeurs)
• La vie utile recede de Errance et tremblements, Evelyne de la Chenelière (Les Herbes rouges)

Non-Fiction
Jury: Louis Hamelin, Rachida M’Faddel, and Paul Savoie

• Cartographie des vivants, Sarah Brunet Dragon (Les Éditions du Noroît)
• Clin d’oeil au Temps qui passe, Antonine Maillet (Leméac Éditeur)
• La prose d’Alain Grandbois. Ou lire et relire Les voyages de Marco Polo, Patrick Moreau (Nota bene)
• La Société des grands fonds, Daniel Canty (La Peuplade)
• Le droit du plus fort : nos dommages, leurs interest, Anne-Marie Voisard (Les Éditions Écosociété)

Young People’s Literature – Text
Jury: Marie-Célie Agnant, Jocelyn Boisvert, and Karen Olsen

• Au Carrefour, Jean-François Sénéchal (Leméac Éditeur)
• Dans le coeur de Florence, Lucie Bergeron (Soulières éditeur)
• L’albatros et la mésange, Dominique Demers (Éditions Québec Amérique)
• Mon coeur après la pluie, Pierre Labrie (Soulières éditeur)
• Où est ma maison?, Édith Bourget (Les éditions du soleil de minuit)

Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books
Jury: Nahid Kazemi, Diane Carmel Léger and François Thisdale

• Contacts, Mélanie Leclerc (Mécanique générale)
• Jack et le temps perdu, Stéphanie Lapointe and Delphie Côté-Lacroix (Quai no 5, Les Éditions XYZ)
• L’escapade de Paolo, Lucie Papineau and Lucie Crovatto (Les Éditions de la Bagnole)
• Laurent, c’est moi!, Stéphanie Deslauriers and Geneviève Desprès (Fonfon)
• Le pelleteur de nuages, Simon Boulerice and Josée Bisaillon (La courte échelle)

Translation (from English to French)
Jury: Myriam Legault, Hélène Rioux and Michel Saint-Germain

• L’animal langage : la compétence linguistique humaine, Charles Taylor and Nicolas Calvé, trans. (Les Éditions du Boréal)
• Le Yiddish à l’usage des pirates, Gary Barwin; Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné, trans.
• Nous qui n’étions rien, Madeleine Thien and Catherine Leroux, trans. (Knopf Canada)
• Onze jours en septembre , Kathleen Winter and Sophie Voillot, trans. (Les Éditions du Boréal)
• Pilleurs de rêves, Cherie Dimaline and Madeleine Stratford, trans. (Les Éditions du Boréal)