Governor General’s Literary Awards are the highest national prizes given to Canadian authors. Fourteen awards are presented annually for works published in Canada in the previous calendar year.
Awards are given in seven categories–fiction, nonfiction, poetry, text for a children’s book, illustration for a children’s book, translation, and drama. Seven awards go to authors or artists whose works are in English, and seven to those whose works are in French. A committee chosen by the Canada Council for the Arts, a government agency, selects the winners, each of whom gets $25,000 and a special copy of their book.
The Governor General’s Literary Awards were established in 1937 under an agreement between the Canadian Authors Association and the then governor general of Canada, John Buchan, a historian and novelist. At first, the awards were given only for works written in English. Each winner received a medal. The Canada Council began to sponsor the awards in 1959. It replaced the medal with a cash prize and also created awards for works written in French.
See also Buchan, John.
