# 2019 Governor General's Awards

The shortlisted nominees for the 2019 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were announced on October 2, 2019, and the winners were announced on October 29.

## English

| Category | Winner | Nominated |
| Fiction | Joan Thomas, Five Wives | Michael Crummey, The Innocents Cary Fagan, The Student Marianne Micros, Eye K. D. Miller, Late Breaking |
| Non-fiction | Don Gillmor, To the River: Losing My Brother | Brian Harvey, Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father Naomi K. Lewis, Tiny Lights for Travellers Alan Walker, Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times Dan Werb, City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands |
| Poetry | Gwen Benaway, Holy Wild | Julie Bruck, How to Avoid Huge Ships Karen Houle, The Grand River Watershed: A Folk Ecology Catherine Hunter, St. Boniface Elegies Armand Garnet Ruffo, Treaty # |
| Drama | Amanda Parris, Other Side of the Game | Kevin Loring, Thanks for Giving Hannah Moscovitch, What a Young Wife Ought to Know Sean Harris Oliver, The Fighting Season Tetsuro Shigematsu, 1 Hour Photo |
| Children's literature | Erin Bow, Stand on the Sky | Brian Francis, Break in Case of Emergency Sue Farrell Holler, Cold White Sun Michelle Kadarusman, Girl of the Southern Sea Jo Treggiari, The Grey Sisters |
| Children's illustration | Sydney Smith, Small in the City | Isabelle Arsenault, Albert's Quiet Quest Cary Fagan and Dena Seiferling, King Mouse Julie Flett, Birdsong Nicola Winstanley and John Martz, How to Give Your Cat a Bath in Five Easy Steps |
| French to English translation | Linda Gaboriau, Birds of a Kind (Wajdi Mouawad, Tous des oiseaux) | Louisa Blair, 887 (Robert Lepage, 887) Sheila Fischman, Vi (Kim Thúy, Vi) Rhonda Mullins, The Embalmer (Anne-Renée Caillé, L'embaumeur) Pablo Strauss, Synapses (Simon Brousseau, Synapses) |

## French

| Category | Winner | Nominated |
| Fiction | Céline Huyghebaert, Le drap blanc | Edem Awumey, Mina parmi les ombres Sylvie Drapeau, La terre Éléonore Goldberg, Maison fauve Mariève Maréchale, La Minotaure |
| Non-fiction | Anne-Marie Voisard, Le droit du plus fort : nos dommages, leurs intérêts | Daniel Canty, La Société des grands fonds Sarah Brunet Dragon, Cartographie des vivants Antonine Maillet, Clin d'œil au Temps qui passe Patrick Moreau, La prose d'Alain Grandbois. Ou lire et relire Les voyages de Marco Polo |
| Poetry | Anne-Marie Desmeules, Le tendon et l'os | Michel Létourneau, La part habitée du ciel Louise Marois, La cuisine mortuaire Louis-Thomas Plamondon, Portages Chloé Savoie-Bernard, Fastes |
| Drama | Mishka Lavigne, Havre | Évelyne de la Chenelière, La vie utile, précédé de Errance et tremblements Rachel Graton, La nuit du 4 au 5 Lisa L'Heureux, Et si un soir Annick Lefebvre, ColoniséEs |
| Children's literature | Dominique Demers, L'albatros et la mésange | Lucie Bergeron, Dans le cœur de Florence Édith Bourget, Où est ma maison? Pierre Labrie, Mon cœur après la pluie Jean-François Sénéchal, Au carrefour |
| Children's illustration | Stéphanie Lapointe and Delphie Côté-Lacroix, Jack et le temps perdu | Simon Boulerice and Josée Bisaillon, Le pelleteur de nuages Stéphanie Deslauriers and Geneviève Després, Laurent, c'est moi! Mélanie Leclerc, Contacts Lucie Papineau and Lucie Crovatto, L'escapade de Paolo |
| English to French translation | Catherine Leroux, Nous qui n'étions rien (Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing) | Nicolas Calvé, L'animal langage : la compétence linguistique humaine (Charles Taylor, The Language Animal) Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné, Le Yiddish à l'usage des pirates (Gary Barwin, Yiddish for Pirates) Madeleine Stratford, Pilleurs de rêves (Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves) Sophie Voillot, Onze jours en septembre (Kathleen Winter, Lost in September) |