1991 Governor General's Awards

Each winner of the 1991 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit received $10,000 and a medal from the Governor General of Canada. The winners were selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.

English Language

Fiction

Winner:

• Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey

Other Finalists:

• Margaret Atwood, Wilderness Tips
• Don Dickinson, Blue Husbands
• Douglas Glover, A Guide to Animal Behaviour
• Terry Griggs, Quickening

Poetry

Winner:

• Don McKay, Night Field

Other Finalists:

• Don Domanski, Wolf-Ladder
• Judith Fitzgerald, Rapturous Chronicles
• Patrick Lane, Mortal Remains
• Anne Michaels, Miner's Pond

Drama

Winner:

• Joan MacLeod, Amigo's Blue Guitar

Other Finalists:

• Sally Clark, The Trial of Judith K.
• Don Druick, Where is Kabuki? Don Druick
• Linda Griffiths, The Darling Family
• Daniel David Moses, Coyote City

Non-fiction

Winner:

• Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo, Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past

Other Finalists:

• Northrop Frye, Words With Power
• Kristjana Gunnars, Zero Hour
• D.L. MacDonald, Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography of the Author of "The Vampyre"
• Rosemary Sullivan, By Heart: Elizabeth Smart, A Life

Children's Literature - Text

Winner:

• Sarah Ellis, Pick-Up Sticks

Other Finalists:

• Martha Brooks, Two Moons in August
• Roch Carrier, A Happy New Year's Day
• Jean Little, Stars Come Out Within
• Monty Reid, The Last Great Dinosaurs

Children's Literature - Illustration

Winner:

• Joanne Fitzgerald, Doctor Kiss Says Yes

Other Finalists:

• Kady MacDonald Denton, The Travelling Musicians
• Michèle Lemieux, Peter and the Wolf
• Gilles Pelletier, A Happy New Year's Day
• Jacquelinne White, Coyote Winter

Translation (from French to English)

Winner:

• Albert W. Halsall, A Dictionary of Literary Devices: Gradus, A-Z

Other Finalists:

• Linda Gaboriau, Lilies or the Revival of a Romantic Drama
• Peter Keating, Physics and the Rise of Scientific Research in Canada
• Patricia Smart and Dorothy Howard, The Diary of André Laurendeau

French Language

Fiction

Winner:

• André Brochu, La croix du Nord

Other Finalists:

• Flora Balzano, Soigne ta chute
• Georges-Hébert Germain , Christophe Colomb: Naufrage sur les côtes du paradis
• Hans-Jürgen Greif, L'Autre Pandore
• Hélène Rioux, Les Miroirs d'Éléonore

Poetry

Winner:

• Madeleine Gagnon, Chant pour un Québec lointain

Other Finalists:

• Claude Beausoleil, Une certaine fin de siècle
• François Charron, L'Intraduisible amour
• Herménégilde Chiasson, Vous
• Rachel Leclerc Les vies frontalières

Drama

Winner:

• Gilbert Dupuis, Mon oncle Marcel qui vague vague près du métro Berri

Other Finalists:

• Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, La maison cassée
• Michel Marc Bouchard, L'Histoire de l'oie
• Dominic Champagne, La répétition
• Suzanne Lebeau, Conte du jour et de la nuit

Non-fiction

Winner:

• Bernard Arcand, Le Jaguar et le Tamanoir

Other Finalists:

• Betty Bednarski, Autour de Ferron : littérature, traduction, altérité
• Guy Bourgeault, L'Éthique et le droit : face aux nouvelles technologies biomédicales
• Jacques Jaffelin, Le Promeneur d'Einstein
• Robert Major, Jean Rivard ou l'art de réussir: idéologies et utopie dans l'oeuvre d'Antoine Gérin-Lajoie

Children's Literature - Text

Winner:

• François Gravel, Deux heures et demie avant Jasmine

Other Finalists:

• Ginette Anfousse, Un terrible secret
• Johanne Mercier, L'Été des autres
• Daniel Sernine, Quatre destins

Children's Literature - Illustration

Winner:

• Sheldon Cohen, Un champion

Other Finalist:

• Stéphane Poulin, Un voyage pour deux : contes et mensonges de mon enfance

Translation (from English to French)

Winner:

• Jean-Paul Sainte-Marie and Brigitte Chabert Hacikyan, Les Enfants d'Aataentsic: l'histoire du peuple huron

Other Finalists:

• Jean-Antonin Billard and Christine Le Boeuf, Orages électriques
• Brigitte Chabert Hacikyan, Le Canada au temps des aventuriers
• Michèle Marineau, Sur le rivage
• Colette Tonge, Un heureux canular