GG’s finalists for 2016 Literary Awards

The Governor General‘s finalists for literary works in 2016 were announced today in Ottawa.

The 33 finalists in seven categories of Canadian English literature are vying for a grand prize of $25,000 in each category, to be announced on October 25th.

80th anniversary of the awards

Madeleine Thien, Kamal Al-Solaylee, Katherena Vermette, Steven Heighton and Jordan Tannahill are among the finalists.

Thien’s success continues with Do Not Say We Have Nothing, a historical novel that takes place over generations. It is also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and Canada’s Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Gary Barwin, nominated for his debut novel, Yiddish for Pirates, is also short-listed the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the awards, which are presented by the Canada Council for the Arts.

On November 30th His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, will present the Awards during a gala celebration at Rideau Hall, in Ottawa. The following day, over the noon hour, people can meet the English-language GG winners at a public reading and book signing at the Canada Council’s office in Ottawa.

The following are the shortlists for each of the seven categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young people’s literature (text), young people’s literature (illustrated books), drama and translated books.

Fiction:

• Yiddish for Pirates by Gary Barwin
• The Parcel by Anosh Irani
• Willem de Kooning’s Paintbrush by Kerry Lee Powell
• Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
• The Break by Katherena Vermette

Nonfiction:

• Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) by Kamal Al-Solaylee
• In-Between Days: A Memoir About Living with Cancer by Teva Harrison
• Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (and Yours) by Harold R. Johnson
• Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World by Marc Raboy
• A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan Before 1905 by Bill Waiser

Poetry:

• Regeneration Machine by Joe Denham
• The Waking Comes Late by Steven Heighton
• Throaty Wipes by Susan Holbrook
• Prairie Harbour by Garry Thomas Morse
• Marry & Burn by Rachel Rose

Young people’s literature (text):

• The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett
• A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston
• Once in a Town Called Moth by Trilby Kent
• Calvin by Martine Leavitt
• The Emperor of Any Place by Tim Wynne-Jones

Young people’s literature (illustration):

• The White Cat and the Monk by Jo Ellen Bogart, illustrated by Sydney Smith
• A Hungry Lion, or A Dwindling Assortment of Animals by Lucy Ruth Cummins
• Tokyo Digs a Garden by Jon-Erik Lappano, illustrated by Kellen Hatanaka
• The Branch by Mireille Messier, illustrated by Pierre Pratt
• Ooko by Esmé Shapiro

Drama:

• Kill Me Now by Brad Fraser
• Pig Girl by Colleen Murphy
• A Man A Fish by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
• Concord Floral by Jordan Tannahill
• Refuge by Mary Vingoe

Translation (French to English):

• The Party Wall translated by Lazer Lederhendler, written by Catherine Leroux
• Guano translated by Rhonda Mullins, written by Louis Carmain
• The Goddess of Fireflies translated by Neil Smith, written by Geneviève Pettersen