# 2003 Governor General's Awards

The 2003 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit: Finalists in 14 categories (70 books) were announced October 20, the four children's literature winners announced and presented November 10, other winners announced and presented November 12. Each winner received a cheque for $15,000.
The separate announcement and presentation of children's literature awards – four, recognizing text and illustration in English- and French-language books – was a novelty in 2003 (continued for at least a few years). The event at Rideau Hall, the Governor General's residence in Ottawa, was scheduled to begin at 10:00 on a Monday morning. "Children from across the National Capital Region will be invited to attend the event, which will also include readings and workshops related to children's literature."

## English

| Category | Winner | Nominated |
| Fiction | Douglas Glover, Elle | Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake Elizabeth Hay, Garbo Laughs Jean McNeil, Private View Edeet Ravel, Ten Thousand Lovers |
| Non-fiction | Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World | Andrew Clark, A Keen Soldier: The Execution of Second World War Private Harold Pringle Andrew Cohen, While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World Maggie de Vries, Vancouver, for Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister Ross King, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling |
| Poetry | Tim Lilburn, Kill-site | Tim Bowling, The Witness Ghost Evan Jones, Nothing Fell Today But Rain Anne Simpson, Loop Tom Wayman, My Father's Cup |
| Drama | Vern Thiessen, Einstein's Gift | Marie Clements, Burning Vision Brian Drader, Prok Sunil Kuruvilla, Rice Boy Michael MacLennan, Last Romantics |
| Children's literature | Glen Huser, Stitches | Sarah Ellis, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack Barbara Haworth-Attard, Theories of Relativity Kevin Major, Ann and Seamus Judd Palmer, The Maestro |
| Children's illustration | Allen Sapp, The Song Within My Heart | Nicolas Debon, Four Pictures by Emily Carr Rob Gonsalves, Imagine a Night Barbara Reid, The Subway Mouse Ludmila Zeman, Sindbad's Secret: From the Tales of the Thousand and One Nights |
| French to English translation | Jane Brierley, Memoirs of a Less Travelled Road: A Historian's Life | Patricia Claxton, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali Jo-Anne Elder, Tales from Dog Island: St. Pierre et Miquelon David Homel and Fred A. Reed, The Heart Is an Involuntary Muscle Susan Ouriou, Necessary Betrayals |

## French

| Category | Winner | Nominated |
| Fiction | Élise Turcotte, La maison étrangère | Jean-François Chassay, L'Angle mort Marie Gagnier, Console-moi Gaétan Soucy, Music-Hall! Larry Tremblay, Le Mangeur de bicyclette |
| Non-fiction | Thierry Hentsch, Raconter et mourir : aux sources narratives de l'imaginaire occidental | Michel Morin, Vertige! et autres essais a-politiques Louise Prescott, Le complexe d'Ulysse : signifiance et micropolitique dans la pratique de l'art François Ricard, Le dernier après-midi d'Agnès: essai sur l'oeuvre de Milan Kundera Régine Robin, La mémoire saturée |
| Poetry | Pierre Nepveu, Lignes aériennes | Nicole Brossard, Cahier de roses & de civilisation Carle Coppens, Le grand livre des entorses Benoît Jutras, Nous serons sans voix Louis-Jean Thibault, Géographie des lointains |
| Drama | Jean-Rock Gaudreault, Deux pas vers les étoiles | François Archambault, La société des loisirs François Létourneau, Cheech Wajdi Mouawad, Incendies Jean-Pierre Ronfard, Écriture pour le théâtre, tome III |
| Children's literature | Danielle Simard, J'ai vendu ma soeur | Mélissa Anctil, Gigi Roger Des Roches, Marie Quatdoigts Laurent Grimon, Le chevalier des Arbres Paul Chanel Malenfant, Si tu allais quelque part |
| Children's illustration | Virginie Egger, Recette d'éléphant à la sauce vieux pneu | Geneviève Côté, Le Premier Printemps du monde Gérard DuBois, Le piano muet Stéphane Jorisch, Thésée et le Minotaure Stéphane Poulin, Annabel et la Bête |
| English to French translation | Agnès Guitard, Un amour de Salomé | Yolande Amzallag, Le canari éthique: science, société et esprit humain Paule Noyart, L'Or bleu: l'eau, nouvel enjeu stratégique et commercial Hélène Paré, L'histoire spectacle: le cas du tricentenaire de Québec Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné, L'analyste |