Seven months after their traditional October announcement, the 70 finalists for the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Awards were announced on May 4. Each finalist will receive $1,000 with winners receiving $25,000, with an additional $3,000 given to publishers to assist in marketing the title. Winners will be announced on June 1 at ggbooks.ca.

Though the 2020 finalist announcement was delayed because of the pandemic, readers won’t have to wait quite so long before the 2021 finalist announcement: they will be announced this fall.

Fiction

• Butter Honey Pig Bread, Francesca Ekwuyasi (Arsenal Pulp Press)

• Five Little Indians, Michelle Good (Harper Perennial/HarperCollins Canada)

• Indians on Vacation, Thomas King (HarperCollins Canada)

• Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (House of Anansi Press)

• The Baudelaire Fractal, Lisa Robertson (Coach House Books)

Poetry

• Eight Track, Oana Avasilichioaei (Talonbooks)

• Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, Anne Carson (New Directions Publishing)

• Orrery, Donna Kane (Harbour Publishing)

• Render, Sachiko Murakami (Arsenal Pulp Press)

• The Dyzgraphxst, Canisia Lubrin (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada)

Drama

• bug, Yolanda Bonnell (Scirocco Drama/J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)

• Guarded Girls, Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman (Playwrights Canada Press)

• Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story, Kim Senklip Harvey (Talonbooks)

• Quick Bright Things, Christopher Cook (Playwrights Canada Press)

• Sound of the Beast, Donna-Michelle St. Bernard (Playwrights Canada Press)

Non-fiction

• A History of My Brief Body, Billy-Ray Belcourt (Hamish Hamilton/PRHC)

• Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space, Amanda Leduc (Coach House Books)

• Rebent Sinner, Ivan Coyote (Arsenal Pulp Press)

• Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging, Tessa McWatt (Random House Canada/PRHC)

• This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart: A Memoir in Halves, Madhur Anand (Strange Light/PRHC)

Young People’s Literature – Text

• Harvey Holds His Own, Colleen Nelson (Pajama Press)

• Nevers, Sara Cassidy (Orca Book Publishers)

• Pine Island Home, Polly Horvath (Puffin Canada/Penguin Random House Canada Young Readers)

• The Barren Grounds, David A. Robertson (Puffin Canada/PRHC Young Readers)

• The King of Jam Sandwiches, Eric Walters (Orca Book Publishers)

Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books

• I Talk Like a River, Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House)

• Our Little Kitchen, Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)

• Swift Fox All Along, Rebecca Thomas and Maya McKibbin (Annick Press)

• The Barnabus Project, The Fan Brothers (Tundra Books/PRHC Young Readers)

• Weekend Dad, Naseem Hrab and Frank Viva (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)

Translation (from French to English)

• Amaryllis & Little Witch, translated by Alexis Diamond (Playwrights Canada Press)
Translation of Vipérine et Petite sorcière, Pascal Brullemans

• Back Roads, translated by J.C. Sutcliffe (Arachnide/House of Anansi Press)
Translation of Routes secondaires, Andrée A. Michaud

• If You Hear Me, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Biblioasis)
Translation of Si tu m’entends, Pascale Quiviger

• The Country Will Bring Us No Peace, translated by Pablo Strauss (Coach House Books)
Translation of Ici, ailleurs, Matthieu Simard

• The Neptune Room, translated by Oana Avasilichioaei (Book*hug Press)
Translation of La chambre Neptune, Bertrand Laverdure

The seven French-language finalists are listed on ggbooks.ca