The Governor General’s Literary Awards celebrate literature and inspire everyone to read books by creators from Canada. Here’s a selection of English-language finalists! Winners will be announced on Nov. 16, 2022.
All the Quiet Places by Brian Thomas Isaac
The coming-of-age story of Eddie Toma, an Indigenous (Syilx) boy, told through the young narrator's wide-eyed observations of the world around him.
Finding Edward by Sheila Murray
Cyril, a Jamaican immigrant, searches for a story, uncovering hidden pieces of the Black experience in twentieth-century Canada from Africville to the lumber camps of British Columbia.
Probably Ruby by Lisa Bird-Wilson
An audacious, brave, and beautiful book about an adopted woman's search for her Indigenous identity for readers of Tommy Orange's There There and Terese Marie Mailhot's Heart Berries.
Pure Colour by Sheila Heti
A novel about art, love, death and time — the story of a life, from beginning to end.
The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat
A sharp-edged and devastating look at how women are conditioned to hide their trauma and suppress their fear, loneliness, and anger, and an unforgettable portrait of how silence can shape a life.
H of H Playbook by Anne Carson
An explosion of thought, in drawings and language, about a Greek tragedy called Herakles by the 5th-century BC poet Euripide.
Horrible Dance by Avery Lake
Horrible Dance is an accomplished addition to transfeminist thought and theory; a brilliant poetic debut about gender-based violence that dismantles received definitions of gender and violence.
Shifting Baseline Syndrome by Aaron Kreuter
A satiric and searing collection of poetry obsessed with television, oceans, Jewish history, and time.
Aki-Wayn-Zih: A Person as Worthy as the Earth by Eli Baxter
Through spiritual teachings, historical accounts, and autobiographical anecdotes, Aki-wayn-zih offers a new form of storytelling from the Anishinaabay point of view.
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner
Donner chronicles the extraordinary life and brutal death of her great-great-aunt Mildred Harnack, the American leader of one of the largest underground resistance groups in Germany during WWII.
Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis by Britt Wray
An impassioned generational perspective on how to stay sane amid climate disruption.
Persephone’s Children: A Life in Fragments by Rowan McCandless
After years of secrecy and silence, Rowan McCandless leaves an abusive relationship and rediscovers her voice and identity through writing.
Rehearsals for Living by Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson trade Black and Indigenous perspectives on the world as it is and how it could be.
