Governor General's Literary Awards
Fiction
The Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (English) is awarded annually for a book written by a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.
See also: Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (French)
indicates a review is available for that book
2014
- Thomas King – The Back of the Turtle
Also shortlisted:
- Michael Crummey – Sweetland
- Bill Gaston – Juliet Was a Surprise
- Claire Holden Rothman – My October
- Joan Thomas – The Opening Sky
2013
- Eleanor Catton – The Luminaries
Also shortlisted:
- Kenneth Bonert – The Lion Seeker
- Joseph Boyden – The Orenda
- Colin McAdam – A Beautiful Truth
- Shyam Selvadurai – The Hungry Ghosts
2012
- Linda Spalding – The Purchase
Also shortlisted:
- Tamas Dobozy – Siege 13
- Robert Hough – Dr. Brinkley's Tower
- Vincent Lam – The Headmaster's Wager
- Carrie Snyder – The Juliet Stories
2011
- Patrick deWitt – The Sisters Brothers
Also shortlisted:
- David Bezmozgis – The Free World
- Esi Edugyan – Half-Blood Blues
- Marina Endicott – The Little Shadows
- Alexi Zentner – Touch
2010
- Dianne Warren – Cool Water
Also shortlisted:
- Sandra Birdsell – Waiting for Joe
- Emma Donoghue – Room
- Drew Hayden Taylor – Motorcycles & Sweetgrass
- Kathleen Winter – Annabel
2009
- Kate Pullinger – The Mistress of Nothing
Also shortlisted:
- Michael Crummey – Galore
- Annabel Lyon – The Golden Mean
- Alice Munro – Too Much Happiness
- Deborah Willis – Vanishing and Other Stories
2008
- Nino Ricci – The Origin of Species
Also shortlisted:
- Rivka Galchen – Atmospheric Disturbances
- Rawi Hage – Cockroach
- David Adams Richards – The Lost Highway
- Fred Stenson – The Great Karoo
2007
- Michael Ondaatje – Divisadero
Also shortlisted:
- David Chariandy – Soucouyant
- Barbara Gowdy – Helpless
- Heather O'Neill – Lullabies for Little Criminals
- M.G. Vassanji – The Assassin's Song
2006
- Peter Behrens – The Law of Dreams
Also shortlisted:
- Trevor Cole – The Fearsome Particles
- Bill Gaston – Gargoyles
- Paul Glennon – The Dodecahedron, or A Frame for Frames
- Rawi Hage – De Niro's Game
2005
- David Gilmour – A Perfect Night to Go to China
Also shortlisted:
- Joseph Boyden – Three Day Road
- Golda Fried – Nellcott Is My Darling
- Charlotte Gill – Ladykiller
- Kathy Page – Alphabet
2004
Also shortlisted:
- David Bezmozgis – Natasha and Other Stories
- Trevor Cole – Norman Bray, In the Performance of His Life
- Colin McAdam – Some Great Thing
- Alice Munro – Runaway
2003
- Douglas Glover – Elle
Also shortlisted:
- Margaret Atwood – Oryx and Crake
- Elizabeth Hay – Garbo Laughs
- Jean McNeil – Private View
- Edeet Ravel – Ten Thousand Lovers
2002
- Gloria Sawai – A Song for Nettie Johnson
Also shortlisted:
- David Bergen – The Case of Lena S.
- Ann Ireland – Exile
- Wayne Johnston – The Navigator of New York
- Carol Shields – Unless
2001
Also shortlisted:
- Yann Martel – Life of Pi
- Tessa McWatt – Dragons Cry
- Jane Urquhart – The Stone Carvers
- Thomas Wharton – Salamander
2000
Also shortlisted:
- Margaret Atwood – The Blind Assassin
- Austin Clarke – The Question
- David Adams Richards – Mercy Among the Children
- Eden Robinson – Monkey Beach
1999
- Matt Cohen – Elizabeth and After
Also shortlisted:
- Neil Bissoondath – The Worlds Within Her
- Anne Fleming – Pool-hopping and Other Stories
- Elyse Gasco – Can You Wave Bye Bye, Baby?
- Keith Maillard – Gloria
1998
Also shortlisted:
- Lynn Coady – Strange Heaven
- Barbara Gowdy – The White Bone
- Wayne Johnston – The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
- Kerri Sakamoto – The Electrical Field
1997
Also shortlisted:
- Sandra Birdsell – The Two-Headed Calf
- Matt Cohen – Last Seen
- Elizabeth Hay – Small Change
- Eric McCormack – First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women
1996
- Guy Vanderhaeghe – The Englishman's Boy
Also shortlisted:
- Margaret Atwood – Alias Grace
- Elisabeth Harvor – Let Me Be the One
- Janice Kulyk Keefer – The Green Library
- Cordelia Strube – Teaching Pigs to Sing
- Audrey Thomas – Coming Down from Wa
1995
- Greg Hollingshead – The Roaring Girl
Also shortlisted:
- Diana Atkinson – Highways and Dancehalls
- Barbara Gowdy – Mister Sandman
- Julie Keith – The Jaguar Temple
- Richard B. Wright – The Age of Longing
1994
- Rudy Wiebe – A Discovery of Strangers
Also shortlisted:
- Margaret Atwood – The Robber Bride
- Donna McFarlane – Division of Surgery
- Alice Munro – Open Secrets
- Russell Smith – How Insensitive
1993
- Carol Shields – The Stone Diaries
Also shortlisted:
- Caroline Adderson – Bad Imaginings
- Thomas King – Green Grass, Running Water
- David Adams Richards – For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down
- Carol Windley – Visible Light
1992
- Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient
Also shortlisted:
- Sandra Birdsell – The Chrome Suite
- Archie Crail – The Bonus Deal
- John Steffler – The Afterlife of George Cartwright
- Sheila Watson – Deep Hollow Creek
1991
- Rohinton Mistry – Such a Long Journey
Also shortlisted:
- Margaret Atwood – Wilderness Tips
- Don Dickinson – Blue Husbands
- Douglas Glover – A Guide to Animal Behaviour
- Terry Griggs – Quickening
1990
- Nino Ricci – Lives of the Saints
Also shortlisted:
- Sky Lee – Disappearing Moon Café
- Alice Munro – Friend of My Youth
- Leslie Hall Pinder – On Double Tracks
- Diane Schoemperlen – Man of My Dreams
1989
- Paul Quarrington – Whale Music
Also shortlisted:
- Ann Copeland – The Golden Thread
- Helen Weinzweig – A View from the Roof
1988
- David Adams Richards – Nights Below Station Street
Also shortlisted:
- Margaret Atwood – Cat's Eye
- Joan Clark – The Victory of Geraldine Gull
- Mark Frutkin – Atmospheres Apollinaire
- Kenneth Radu – The Cost of Living
1987
- M.T. Kelly – A Dream Like Mine
Also shortlisted:
- David Gurr – The Ring Master
- Rohinton Mistry – Tales from Firozsha Baag
- Michael Ondaatje – In the Skin of a Lion
- Carol Shields – Swann: A Mystery
1986
Also shortlisted:
- Lois Braun – A Stone Watermelon
- John Metcalf – Adult Entertainment
- Aritha van Herk – No Fixed Address
1985
- Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid's Tale
Also shortlisted:
- Sharon Butala – Queen of the Headaches
- Keath Fraser – Foreign Affairs
- David Adams Richards – Road to the Stilt House
1984
- Josef Skvorecky – The Engineer of Human Souls
Also shortlisted:
- Timothy Findley – Not Wanted on the Voyage
- Susan Kerslake – The Book of Fears
- Audrey Thomas – Intertidal Life
1983
- Leon Rooke – Shakespeare's Dog
Also shortlisted:
- Philip Kreiner – People Like Us In a Place Like This
- H.R. Percy – Painted Ladies
- Susan Swan – The Biggest Modern Woman of the World
1982
- Guy Vanderhaeghe – Man Descending
Also shortlisted:
- Alice Munro – The Moons of Jupiter
- Chris Scott – Antichthon
1981
- Mavis Gallant – Home Truths: Selected Canadian Stories
1980
- George Bowering – Burning Water
Also shortlisted:
- Susan Musgrave – The Charcoal Burners
- Leon Rooke – Fat Woman
1979
- Jack Hodgins – The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne
Also shortlisted:
- Margaret Atwood – Life Before Man
- Matt Cohen – The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone
1978
1977
- Timothy Findley – The Wars
1976
1975
- Brian Moore – The Great Victorian Collection
1974
- Margaret Laurence – The Diviners
1973
- Rudy Wiebe – The Temptations of Big Bear
1972
- Robertson Davies – The Manticore
1971
- Mordecai Richler – St. Urbain's Horseman
1970
- Dave Godfrey – The New Ancestors
1969
- Robert Kroetsch – The Studhorse Man
1968
1966
- Margaret Laurence – A Jest of God
1964
- Douglas LePan – The Deserter
1963
- Hugh Garner – Hugh Garner's Best Stories
1962
- Kildare Dobbs – Running to Paradise
1961
- Malcolm Lowry – Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place
1960
- Brian Moore – The Luck of Ginger Coffey
1959
- Hugh MacLennan – The Watch that Ends the Night
1958
- Colin McDougall – Execution
1957
- Gabrielle Roy – Street of Riches (translation)
1956
- Adele Wiseman – The Sacrifice
1955
- Lionel Shapiro – The Sixth of June
1954
- Igor Gouzenko – The Fall of a Titan
1953
- David Walker – Digby
1952
- David Walker – The Pillar
1951
- Morley Callaghan – The Loved and the Lost
1950
- Germaine Guèvremont – The Outlander (translation)
1949
- Philip Child – Mr. Ames Against Time
1948
- Hugh MacLennan – The Precipice
1947
- Gabrielle Roy – The Tin Flute (translation)
1946
- Winifred Bambrick – Continental Revue
1945
- Hugh MacLennan – Two Solitudes
1944
- Gwethalyn Graham – Earth and High Heaven
1943
- Thomas H. Raddall – The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek
1942
- G. Herbert Sallans – Little Man
1941
- Alan Sullivan – Three Came to Ville Marie
1940
- Ringuet (pseud.) – Thirty Acres (translation)
1939
- Franklin D. McDowell – The Champlain Road
1938
- Gwethalyn Graham – Swiss Sonata
1937
- Laura G. Salverson – The Dark Weaver
1936
- Bertram Brooker – Think of The Earth
