Two prominent playwrights with strong connections to Ottawa have been nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for drama.
The first ever artistic director of the National Arts Centre’s Indigenous theatre Kevin Loring has been nominated for his play Thanks for Giving and Hannah Moscovitch is a drama finalist for her work What a Young Wife Ought to Know.
Notably, in the English Fiction category, Michael Crummey‘s The Innocents now is a finalist for three important fiction prizes along with the Giller and the Writers Trust. he will be at the Ottawa Writers Festival on Oct. 27.
Here are the finalists:
English Fiction
Eye by Marianne Micros (Guernica Editions)
Five Wives by Joan Thomas (Harper Avenue/HarperCollins Publishers)
Late Breaking by K.D. Miller (Biblioasis)
The Innocents by Michael Crummey (Doubleday Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
The Student by Cary Fagan (Freehand Books)
Poetry
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
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 Press)
Non-Fiction
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/Penguin Random House Canada)
Young People’s Literature – Text
Break in Case of Emergency – Brian Francis (HarperCollins Publishers)
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
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)
887 – Translated by Louisa Blair (House of Anansi Press) Translation of 887 by Robert Lepage (Éditions Québec Amérique)
Birds of a Kind – Translated by Linda Gaboriau (Playwrights Canada Press); translation of Tous des oiseaux by Wajdi Mouawad (Leméac/Actes Sud-Papiers)
Synapses – Translated by Pablo Strauss (Talonbooks; translation of Synapses by Simon Brousseau, Le Cheval d’août
The Embalmer – Translated by Rhonda Mullins (Coach House Books); translation of L’embaumeur by Anne-Renée Caillé (Héliotrope)
Vi – Translated by Sheila Fischman (Random House Canada/Penguin Random House Canada); translation of Vi by Kim Thúy (Éditions Libre Expression)
French-language Fiction
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 (Gatineau, Que.) Les Éditions du Boréal
Poetry
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
ColoniséEs – Annick Lefebvre (Dramaturges Éditeurs)
Et si un soir – Lisa L’Heureux (Ottawa, Ont.) Éditions Prise de parole
Havre – Mishka Lavigne (Gatineau, Que.) Les Éditions L’Interligne
La nuit du 4 au 5 – Rachel Graton (Dramaturges Éditeurs)
La vie utile précédé de Errance et tremblements – Evelyne de la Chenelière (Les Herbes rouges)
Non-Fiction
Cartographie des vivants – Sarah Brunet Dragon (Les Éditions du Noroît)
Clin d’œil 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 intérêts – Anne-Marie Voisard (Les Éditions Écosociété)
Young People’s Literature – Text
Au carrefour – Jean-François Sénéchal (Leméac Éditeur)
Dans le cœur de Florence – Lucie Bergeron (Soulières éditeur)
L’albatros et la mésange – Dominique Demers (Éditions Québec Amérique)
Mon cœur 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
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)
L’animal langage : la compétence linguistique humaine – Translated by Nicolas Calvé (Les Éditions du Boréal); translation of The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity by Charles Taylor, Harvard University Press
Le Yiddish à l’usage des pirates – Translated by Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné (Les Éditions du Boréal); translation of Yiddish for Pirates by Gary Barwin, Vintage Canada
Nous qui n’étions rien – Translated by Catherine Leroux (Éditions Alto); translation of Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien, Knopf Canada
Onze jours en septembre – Translated by Sophie Voillot (Les Éditions du Boréal); translation of Lost in September by Kathleen Winter, Knopf Canada
Pilleurs de rêves – Translated by Madeleine Stratford (Ottawa, Ont.) Les Éditions du Boréal; translation of The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, DCB/Cormorant Books
English-language peer assessment committees
Fiction: Aislinn Hunter, Wayne Johnston and Saleema Nawaz
Poetry: Lesley Belleau, Méira Cook and Allan Cooper
Theatre: Maja Ardal, Megan Gail Coles and Curtis Peeteetuce
Non-Fiction: Ross King, Rachel Lebowitz and Marina Nemat
Young People’s Literature – Text: Kagiso Lesego Molope, Kenneth Oppel and Ellen Schwartz
Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books: Shauntay Grant, Jon Klassen and Kathryn Shoemaker
Translation (from French to English): Nicola Danby, Wayne Grady and Maureen Labonté
French-language peer assessment committees
Fiction: Hervé Bouchard, Blaise Ndala and Élise Turcotte
Poetry: Nora Atalla, Maggie Roussel and Christian Roy
Theatre: Normand Canac-Marquis, Miriam Cusson and Talia Hallmona
Non-Fiction: Louis Hamelin, Rachida M’Faddel and Paul Savoie
Young People’s Literature – Text: Marie-Célie Agnant, Jocelyn Boisvert and Karen Olsen
Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books: Nahid Kazemi, Diane Carmel Léger and François Thisdale
Translation (from English to French): Myriam Legault, Hélène Rioux and Michel Saint-Germain
The winners of the awards will be announced Oct. 29. They will be the guests of honour at a ceremony in Rideau Hall on Dec. 12.
The Governor General’s Literary Awards are one of Canada’s oldest and most prestigious, with a total annual prize value of $450,000.
Finalists are selected by category-specific, language-based peer assessment committees (seven in English and seven in French), who consider eligible books published between Sept. 1, 2018, and Sept. 30, 2019, for English-language books and between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019, for French-language books.
Each winner receives $25,000, with the publisher receiving $3,000 to promote the winning book. Finalists receive $1,000 each.
