The Buzz...About Books

If you are thinking that this award is usually given out in the autumn during literary awards season, you are correct. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic last year's Governor General's Literary Awards were postponed and are taking place now instead. Fans of literary awards will be delighted to learn that the 2021 awards will continue as scheduled in October giving us twice as many notable books to discuss. 

Awards are presented in 14 categories — 7 in each of the official languages.

These are the nominees in the English Adult categories:

Drama

Bug by Yolanda Bonnell

Guarded Girls by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman

Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch's Story by Kim Senklip Harvey with The Fire Company

Quick Bright Things by Christopher Cook

Sound of the Beast by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard

Fiction

The Baudelaire Fractal by Lisa Robertson

Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

Indians on Vacation by Thomas King

Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Non-Fiction

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space by Amanda Leduc

A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt

Rebent Sinner by Ivan Coyote

Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging by Tessa McWatt

This Red Line Goes Straight to your Heart: A Memoir in Halves by Madhur Anand

Poetry

The Dyzgraph^xst by Canesia Lubrin

Eight Track: Poems and Photographs by Oana Avasilichioaei

Norma Jeane Baker of Troy by Anne Carson

Orrery by Donna Kane

Render by Sachiko Murakami

Translation: French to English

In this category, the award is presented to the translator of the work. 

Amaryllis and Little Witch by Pascal Brullemans, translation by Alexis Diamond 

Back Roads by Andrée A. Michaud, translation by J.C. Sutcliffe

The Country Will Bring Us No Peace by Matthieu Simard, translation by Pablo Strauss

If You Hear Me by Pascale Quiviger, translation by Lazer Lederhendler

The Neptune Room by Bertrand Laverdure,  translation by Oana Avasilichioaei

The winners will be announced on June 1, 2021.

The full list of nominees can be found on the Governor General's Literary Awards website.