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"

Other Governor General's Awards: