Governor General’s Literary Awards

The Canada Council for the Arts presents the finalists of the
2024 Governor General’s Literary Awards

The Governor General’s Literary Awards (GGBooks) celebrate literature and inspire people to read books by creators from Canada. They provide finalists and winners with valuable recognition from peers and readers across the country.

Ten book covers are shown against a background of dark blue and bright pink, yellow and orange.

The most notable books of 2024

2024 English-language finalists 2024 French-language finalists

English-language books French-language books

Fiction

Code Noir

Canisia Lubrin

Knopf Canada (Penguin Random House)

Empty Spaces

Jordan Abel

McClelland & Stewart (Penguin Random House Canada)

The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: Vol. 1: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island

Kent Monkman, Gisèle Gordon

McClelland & Stewart (Penguin Random House Canada)

Her Body Among Animals

Paola Ferrante

Book*hug Press

Naniki

Oonya Kempadoo

Dundurn Press

Lait cru

Steve Poutré

Éditions Alto

De grandes personnes

Mathieu Rolland

Les Éditions du Boréal

La version qui n’intéresse personne

Emmanuelle Pierrot

Le Quartanier

Le compte est bon

Louis-Daniel Godin

La Peuplade

Muette

Pascale Beauregard

Les Éditions du Boréal

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Chris Eaton

Francesca Ekwuyasi

Jen Ferguson

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Michael Delisle

Andrée Michaud

Maya Ombasic

Poetry

The Work

Bren Simmers

Gaspereau Press

Precedented Parroting

Barbara Tran

Palimpsest Press

The All + Flesh

Brandi Bird

House of Anansi Press

Sonnets from a Cell

Bradley Peters

Brick Books

Scientific Marvel

Chimwemwe Undi

House of Anansi Press

Soleil sans heures

Olyvier Leroux-Picard

Poètes de brousse

poème dégénéré

névé dumas

L’Oie de Cravan

Les couteaux dans ma gorge ne sont pas des fruits de mer

Annie Landreville

Poètes de brousse

L’air fou

Jonas Fortier

L’Oie de Cravan

Lettres au ciel blanc

Emmanuel Simard

Poètes de brousse

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Kathryn Mockler

Heather Nolan

Tolu Oloruntoba

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Bathélemy Bolivar

Virginie Chaloux-Gendron

Daria Colonna

Drama

I Forgive You

Scott Jones, Robert Chafe

Playwrights Canada Press

New

Pamela Mala Sinha

Playwrights Canada Press

The Green Line

Makram Ayache

Playwrights Canada Press

Shorelines

Mishka Lavigne

Playwrights Canada Press

There Is Violence and There Is Righteous Violence and There Is Death, or the Born-Again Crow

Caleigh Crow

Playwrights Canada Press

Ciseaux

Geneviève Labelle, Mélodie Noël Rousseau

Éditions du remue-ménage

La dernière cassette : Un portrait d’André Brassard

Olivier Choinière

Atelier 10

Wollstonecraft

Sarah Berthiaume

Éditions de Ta Mère

Ornithorynques

Johanne Parent

Éditions Perce-Neige

Rose

Isabelle Hubert

L’instant même

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Kevin Kerr

Marcia Johnson

Kamila Sediego

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Madeleine Blais-Dahlem

Antoine Côté Legault

Anne-Marie Olivier

Non-fiction

Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir

Danny Ramadan

Viking Canada (Penguin Random House)

Becoming a Matriarch

Helen Knott

Vintage Canada (Penguin Random House)

The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Petra Molnar

The New Press

The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart

Astra Taylor

House of Anansi Press

Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre

Niigaan Sinclair

McClelland & Stewart (Penguin Random House Canada)

Hors jeu : Chronique culturelle et féministe sur l’industrie du sport professionnel

Florence-Agathe Dubé-Moreau

Éditions du remue-ménage

Noir satin

Stanley Péan

Les Éditions du Boréal

Oser l’humour éthique : De Socrate à Virginie Fortin

Jérôme Cotte

Éditions Somme toute

Porter plainte

Léa Clermont-Dion

Le Cheval d’août

Une abeille suffit : Carnet d’observation d’un jardin urbain

Geneviève Boudreau

Éditions du Noroît

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Jordan Abel

Robyn Maynard

Mary Soderstrom

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Marie-Andrée Lamontagne

Pierrot Ross-Tremblay

Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny

Young People’s Literature – Text

Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams

Shari Green

Andrews McMeel Publishing

A Crane Among Wolves

June Hur

Feiwel and Friends (MacMillan Publishers)

Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix

Cherie Dimaline

Feiwel and Friends (MacMillan Publishers)

Crash Landing

Li Charmaine Anne

Annick Press

Mortified

Kristy Jackson

HarperCollins Canada

Carreauté Kid

Marc-André Dufour-Labbé

Leméac Éditeur

Déménager au ciel

Jean-Guy Forget, Mélodie Bujold-Henri

la courte échelle

Une bulle en dehors du temps

Stéfani Meunier

Leméac Éditeur

Envole-toi, Mikun

Moira-Uashteskun Bacon

Éditions Hannenorak

Les quatre vérités

Dominique Chicoine

Les Éditions du Boréal

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Sarah Everett

Louisa Onomé

Ken Setterington

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Mario Brassard

Christine Sioui Wawanoloath

Élise Turcotte

Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books

One Giant Leap

Thao Lam

Owlkids Books

I’m Afraid, Said the Leaf

Danielle Daniel, Matt James

Tundra Books (Penguin Random House Canada)

The Gulf

Adam de Souza

Tundra Books (Penguin Random House Canada)

Do You Remember?

Sydney Smith

Groundwood Books (House of Anansi Press)

Skating Wild on an Inland Sea

Jean E. Pendziwol, Todd Stewart

Groundwood Books (House of Anansi Press)

Histoires fantastiques (et peut-être vraies)

Caroline Merola

la courte échelle

Jour d’orage

Marianne Ferrer

Monsieur Ed

Le fil d’Alphée

Marie-Andrée Arsenault, Dominique Leroux

Les éditions la Morue verte

Le premier arbre de Noël

Ovila Fontaine, Charlotte Parent

Éditions de la Pastèque

Margot veut une moustache

Iris Boudreau, Richard Écrapou

Les Éditions de la Bagnole

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Kyrsten Brooker

Shauntay Grant

Kevin Sylvester

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Clément de Gaulejac

Diane Obomsawin

Isabelle Picard

Translation

So Long Sad Love

Aleshia Jensen

Drawn and Quarterly; translation of Adieu triste amour, by Mirion Malle

The Hollow Beast

Lazer Lederhendler

Biblioasis; translation of La bête creuse, by Christophe Bernard

Sadie X

Aimee Wall

Book*hug Press; translation of Sadie X, by Clara Dupuis-Morency

Morel

Melissa Bull

Baraka Books; translation of Morel, by Maxime Raymond Bock

Nights Too Short to Dance

Katia Grubisic

Second Story Press; translation of Un cœur habité de mille voix, by Marie-Claire Blais

Ristigouche : Le long cours de la rivière sauvage

Éric Fontaine

Les Éditions du Boréal; translation of Restigouche: The Long Run of the Wild River, by Philip Lee

Charlie Muskrat

Daniel Grenier

Éditions Hannenorak; translation of Charlie Muskrat, by Harold Johnson

Cours vers le danger

Madeleine Stratford

Les Éditions du Boréal; translation of Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory, by Sarah Polley

La messagère

Sophie Voillot

Éditions Alto; translation of The Book of Rain, by Thomas Wharton

Mourir pour la cause : Révolution dans le Québec des années 1960

Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau

Éditions Pow Pow; translation of Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? Revolution in 1960s Quebec, by Chris Oliveros

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Peter Feldstein

Jessica Moore

Anne-Marie Wheeler

PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

Jeannot Clair

Danielle LeBlanc

Nésida Loyer

Visit the 2024 GGBooks partner websites to find the year’s most notable books.

An English-language GGBooks banner with a gold winner seal and a silver finalist seal against a dark blue background.

The Canada Council for the Arts thanks this year’s GGBooks partners for their contributions to the promotion of literature from Canada.

National Network for Equitable Library Service

Submitting a book

Publishers can submit works they consider to be outstanding. The guidelines and eligibility requirements are accessible through the button below.

How to submit a nomination

The Canada Council for the Arts presents the finalists of the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Awards

The most notable books of 2024

2024 English-language finalists 2024 French-language finalists

Code Noir

Empty Spaces

The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: Vol. 1: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island

Her Body Among Animals

Naniki

Lait cru

De grandes personnes

La version qui n’intéresse personne

Le compte est bon

Muette

The Work

Precedented Parroting

The All + Flesh

Sonnets from a Cell

Scientific Marvel

Soleil sans heures

poème dégénéré

Les couteaux dans ma gorge ne sont pas des fruits de mer

L’air fou

Lettres au ciel blanc

I Forgive You

New

The Green Line

Shorelines

There Is Violence and There Is Righteous Violence and There Is Death, or the Born-Again Crow

Ciseaux

La dernière cassette : Un portrait d’André Brassard

Wollstonecraft

Ornithorynques

Rose

Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir

Becoming a Matriarch

The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart

Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre

Hors jeu : Chronique culturelle et féministe sur l’industrie du sport professionnel

Noir satin

Oser l’humour éthique : De Socrate à Virginie Fortin

Porter plainte

Une abeille suffit : Carnet d’observation d’un jardin urbain

Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams

A Crane Among Wolves

Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix

Crash Landing

Mortified

Carreauté Kid

Déménager au ciel

Une bulle en dehors du temps

Envole-toi, Mikun

Les quatre vérités

One Giant Leap

I’m Afraid, Said the Leaf

The Gulf

Do You Remember?

Skating Wild on an Inland Sea

Histoires fantastiques (et peut-être vraies)

Jour d’orage

Le fil d’Alphée

Le premier arbre de Noël

Margot veut une moustache

So Long Sad Love

The Hollow Beast

Sadie X

Morel

Nights Too Short to Dance

Ristigouche : Le long cours de la rivière sauvage

Charlie Muskrat

Cours vers le danger

La messagère

Mourir pour la cause : Révolution dans le Québec des années 1960

Visit the 2024 GGBooks partner websites to find the year’s most notable books.

Submitting a book

The Canada Council for the Arts presents the finalists of the
2024 Governor General’s Literary Awards