The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the finalists for the 2025 Governor General’s Literary Awards.

These awards celebrate works published in Canada, in both official languages, across seven categories, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, young people’s literature for text and illustration, and translation.

The winners will be announced on Nov. 6, 2025.

The shortlisted titles are:

English-language shortlists

Fiction

• Endling by Maria Reva (Knopf Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
• Hi, It’s Me by Fawn Parker (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada)
• Juiceboxers by Benjamin Hertwig (Freehand Books)
• real ones by katherena vermette (Penguin Canada)
• Small Ceremonies by Kyle Edwards (McClelland & Stewart/PRHC)

Poetry

• 10:10 by Michael Trussler (icehouse poetry/Goose Lane Editions)
• Dante’s Inferno: A new translation by Lorna Goodison (Carcanet Press / published in Canada by Signal Editions/Véhicule Press)
• Island by Douglas Walbourne-Gough (icehouse poetry/Goose Lane Editions)
• Shadow Price by Farah Ghafoor (House of Anansi Press)
• Wellwater by Karen Solie (House of Anansi Press)

Drama

• Downed Hearts by Catherine Banks (Scirocco Drama/J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)
• Fall on Your Knees by Alisa Palmer and Hannah Moscovitch (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Little Pretty and The Exceptional by Anusree Roy (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Rise, Red River by Tara Beagan (Playwrights Canada Press)
• The Ministry of Grace by Tara Beagan (Scirocco Drama/J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)

Non-fiction

• All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey by Teresa Wong (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• How to Survive a Bear Attack by Claire Cameron (Knopf Canada/PRHC)
• Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim “Joe” Fortes by Ruby Smith Dίaz (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse: A Memoir by Vinh Nguyen (HarperCollins Canada)
• What to Feel, How to Feel: Lyric Essays on Neurodivergence and Neurofatherhood by Shane Neilson (Palimpsest Press)

Young People’s Literature – Text

• A Drop in the Ocean by Léa Taranto (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Beast by Richard Van Camp (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Best of all Worlds by Kenneth Oppel (Tundra Books/Penguin Random House Canada)
• The Outsmarters by Deborah Ellis (Groundwood Books)
• Tig by Heather Smith (Tundra Books/PRHC)

Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books

• Bog Myrtle by Sid Sharp (Annick Press)
• It Bears Repeating by Tanya Tagaq, Cee Pootoogook (Tundra Books/PRHC)
• Oasis, Guojing (Henry Holt & Co./Macmillan Publishers)
• The Rock and the Butterfly, by Kathy Stinson and Brooke Kerrigan, illus. (Orca Book Publishers)
•  This Land is a Lullaby by Tonya Simpson and Delreé Dumont, illus. (Orca Book Publishers)

Translation (from French to English)

• Baldwin, Styron, and Me by Catherine Khordoc (Biblioasis), translation of Baldwin, Styron et moi, by Mélikah Abdelmoumen
• Farida by Phyllis Aronoff, Howard Scott (Mawenzi House Publishers), translation of Farida by Monia Mazigh
• May Our Joy Endure by Donald Winkler (Biblioasis), translation of Que notre joie demeure by Kevin Lambert
• Muybridge by Helge Dascher, Rob Aspinall (Drawn & Quarterly), translation of Muybridge by Guy Delisle
• Uiesh / Somewhere by Jessica Moore (Talonbooks), translation of Uiesh / Quelque part, by Joséphine Bacon

French-language shortlists

Fiction

• Femmes silencieuses by Cristina Vanciu (Héliotrope)
•  Je mets mes rêves sur la table by Martina Chumova (Le Cheval d’août)
• Les déterrées by Katia Belkhodja (Mémoire d’encrier)
• Rapines by Patrice Lessard (Éditions XYZ)
• Une histoire silencieuse by Alexandra Boilard-Lefebvre (La Peuplade)

Poetry

• Aller aux corps by Laurence Veilleux (Éditions du Noroît)
• Au passage du fleuve by Paul Chanel Malenfant (Éditions du Noroît)
• Comparution by Angelina Guo (Le Quartanier)
• Les sutures by Catherine Harton (Poètes de brousse)
• Mourir est beau by Stéphane Martelly (Éditions du Noroît)

Drama

• Awards by Maxime Brillon (Les Herbes rouges)
• Ces regards amoureux de garçons altérés by Éric Noël (Leméac Éditeur)
• Fanny by Rébecca Déraspe (Éditions de Ta Mère)
• La vengeance et l’oubli by Olivier Kemeid (Leméac Éditeur)
• Paysages by Danièle LeBlanc (Lansman Editeur)

Non-fiction

• Faire que! L’engagement politique à l’ère de l’inouï by Alain Deneault (Lux Éditeur)
• Mourir de froid, c’est beau, c’est long, c’est délicieux by Nathalie Plaat (Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal/Les salicaires)
• Recueillir byLouise Warren (Éditions du Noroît)
• Soigner, écrire by Ouanessa Younsi (Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal)
• Tu viens d’où? Réflexions sur le métissage et les frontières by Maïka Sondarjee (Lux Éditeur)

Young People’s Literature – Text

•  Cheer by Laura Doyle Péan (Les Éditions de La Bagnole)
• Coup bas by Laurie Léveillé (La courte échelle)
•  Fatigué mort by Marc-André Dufour-Labbé (Leméac Jeunesse)
• Tête boule disco by Noémie Pomerleau-Cloutier (Les Éditions du Boréal)
• Vieille branche by Catherine Fouron (Les Éditions de La Bagnole)

Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books

• En crise by Annick Lefebvre and Vincent Partel-Valette, illus. (Les Éditions de La Bagnole)
• La tasse de Gilles by Catherine Trudeau, Qin Leng (La Pastèque)
• Le livre aspirateur by Jocelyn Boisvert and Enzo (Éditions Michel Quintin)
• Murielle et le mystère by Charlotte Parent (Comme des géants)
• Un cadeau de Noël en novembre by Stéphane Laporte and Jacques Goldstyn, illus. (Les Éditions de La Bagnole)

Translation (from English to French)

• Créatures obscures du 21e siècle by Annie Goulet (Héliotrope),
  translation of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
• Étude pour l’obéissance by Catherine Leroux (Alto),
  translation of Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
• Les soeurs de la Muée by Sylvie Bérard, Suzanne Grenier (Le Quartanier), translation of The Tiger Flu by Larissa Lai
• Nous, Jane by Geneviève Robichaud, Danielle LeBlanc (Éditions Perce-Neige), translation of We, Jane by Aimee Wall
• Rouge by Marie Frankland (Québec Amérique), translation of Rouge by Mona Awad