75 Years of Excellence
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Governor General's Literary Awards. The finalists for the 2011 prize was announced on Tuesday, October 11. One notable name missing from the fiction shortlist is Michael Ondaatje, whose novel The Cat's Table has received much critical praise. In fact, Ondaatje asked that his book not be submitted for consideration this year. He stated that although the award "has been very important to me and I greatly respect it and what it has done for our literature" he believes that "I have received it many times and felt I should not enter a book again".
Ondaatje has won'the Governor General's award 5 times for both poetry and fiction. He was also a finalist in 1987 for his novel In the Skin of a Lion and in 1998 for Handwriting, a poetry collection.
1970: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (poetry category)
1979: There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do: Poems 1963-1978 (poetry category)
1992: The English Patient (fiction category)
2000: Anil's Ghost (fiction category)
2007 Divisadero (fiction category)
In the history of the award, there has been only one other 5-time winner. Hugh MacLennan was honoured for his work in both fiction and nonfiction.
1945: Two Solitudes (fiction category)
1948: The Precipice (fiction category)
1949: Cross-Country (nonfiction category)
1954: Thirty and Three (nonfiction category)
1959: The Watch that Ends the Night (fiction category)
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