The winners of the 2026 English-language Governor General’s awards.

The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the 14 winners of the 2026 Governor General’s Literary Awards.

Kate Cayley, who won the Toronto Book Award earlier this week for her debut novel, Gillian Sze, and Matthew Forsythe are among this year’s English-language winners.

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.

Winning writers, illustrators, and translators receive $25,000, while publishers receive $3,000 to promote the winning titles. Finalists, who were announced last month, each receive $1,000.

The English-language winners are:

Fiction

• Property by Kate Cayley (Coach House Books) Review

Poetry

• An Orange, a Syllable by Gillian Sze (ECW Press)

Drama

• Prince Faggot by Jordan Tannahill (Playwrights Canada Press)

Nonfiction

• Black Bear: A Story of Siblinghood and Survival by Trina Moyles (Knopf Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)

Young People’s Literature — Text

• Touching Grass by Kristy Jackson (HarperCollins Canada)

Young People’s Literature — Illustrated Books

• Aggie and the Ghost by Matthew Forsythe (Simon & Schuster) Review

Translation (from French to English)

• Together by the Sea, translated by Katia Grubisic (House of Anansi Press)
  Translation of Une réunion près de la mer by Marie-Claire Blais

Winners in the French-language winners are listed on the GGBooks website.

Finalists and winners were selected by category-specific peer assessment committees. Committees considered more than 1,200 nominated books this year. Eligible books were those published August 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026.