Governor General's Literary Awards
Non-fiction
The Governor General's Literary Award for Non-fiction (English) is awarded annually for a book written by a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.
Note: From 1942 to 1958, the nonfiction category was split into creative writing and academic writing.
See also: Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction (French)
indicates a review is available for that book
2014
- Michael Harris – The End of Absence
Also shortlisted:
- Arno Kopecky – The Oil Man and the Sea
- Edmund Metatawabin with Alexandra Shimo – Up Ghost River
- Maria Mutch – Know the Night
2013
- Sandra Djwa – Journey with No Maps
Also shortlisted:
- Carolyn Abraham – The Juggler's Children
- Nina Munk – The Idealist
- Allen Smutylo – The Memory of Water
- Priscila Uppal – Projection
2012
- Ross King – Leonardo and the Last Supper
Also shortlisted:
- Carol Bishop-Gwyn – The Pursuit of Perfection
- Nahlah Ayed – A Thousand Farewells
- Noah Richler – What We Talk About When We Talk About War
- Wade Davis – Into the Silence
2011
- Charles Foran – Mordecai: The Life & Times
Also shortlisted:
- Nathan M. Greenfield – The Damned
- Richard Gwyn – Nation Maker, Volume Two: 1867-1891
- J.J. Lee – The Measure of a Man
- Andrew Nikiforuk – Empire of the Beetle
2010
- Allan Casey – Lakeland
Also shortlisted:
- Elizabeth Abbott – A History of Marriage
- Ian Brown – The Boy in the Moon
- Karen Connelly – Burmese Lessons
- John English – Just Watch Me
2009
- M.G. Vassanji – A Place Within
Also shortlisted:
- Randall Hansen – Fire and Fury
- Trevor Herriot – Grass, Sky, Song
- Eric S. Margolis – American Raj
- Eric Siblin – The Cello Suites
2008
- Christie Blatchford – Fifteen Days
Also shortlisted:
- Douglas Hunter – God's Mercies
- Sid Marty – The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek
- James Orbinski – An Imperfect Offering
- Chris Turner – The Geography of Hope
2007
- Karolyn Smardz Frost – I've Got a Home in Glory Land
Also shortlisted:
- Rodrigo Bascuñán and Christian Pearce – Enter the Babylon System
- John English – Citizen of the World
- Stephanie Nolen – 28
- Bridget Stutchbury – Silence of the Songbirds
2006
- Ross King – The Judgment of Paris
Also shortlisted:
- Afua Cooper – The Hanging of Angélique
- Susanne Reber and Robert Renaud – Starlight Tour
- Michael Strangelove – The Empire of Mind
- Christine Wiesenthal – The Half-Lives of Pat Lowther
2005
- John Vaillant – The Golden Spruce
Also shortlisted:
- Ted Bishop – Riding with Rilke
- Michael Mitchell – The Molly Fire
- Edward Shorter – Written in the Flesh
- Jessica Warner – The Incendiary
2004
- Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire – Shake Hands with the Devil
Also shortlisted:
- Anne Coleman – I'll Tell You a Secret
- Christopher Dewdney – Acquainted with the Night
- Jane Jacobs – Dark Age Ahead
- Jan Zwicky – Wisdom & Metaphor
2003
- Margaret MacMillan – Paris 1919
Also shortlisted:
- Andrew Clark – A Keen Soldier
- Andrew Cohen – While Canada Slept
- Maggie de Vries – Missing Sarah
- Ross King – Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling
2002
- Andrew Nikiforuk – Saboteurs
Also shortlisted:
- Carolyn Abraham – Possessing Genius
- Jill Frayne – Starting Out in the Afternoon
- Stephen Henighan – When Words Deny the World
- Don McKay – Vis à Vis
2001
- Thomas Homer-Dixon – The Ingenuity Gap
Also shortlisted:
- Susan Crean – The Laughing One
- Ross A. Laird – Grain of Truth
- Alberto Manguel – Reading Pictures
- Jack Todd – The Taste of Metal
2000
- Nega Mezlekia – Notes from the Hyena's Belly
Also shortlisted:
- Robert Bringhurst – A Story as Sharp as a Knife
- Denise Chong – The Girl in the Picture
- Trevor Herriot – River in a Dry Land
- A.B. McKillop – The Spinster and the Prophet
1999
- Marq de Villiers – Water
Also shortlisted:
- Donald Harman Akenson – Surpassing Wonder
- Michael Bliss – William Osler
- Wayson Choy – Paper Shadows
- Wayne Johnston – Baltimore's Mansion
1998
- David Adams Richards – Lines on the Water
Also shortlisted:
- Wayne Grady – The Quiet Limit of the World
- Charlotte Gray – Mrs. King
- Judy Schultz – Mamie's Children
- Rudy Wiebe and Yvonne Johnson – Stolen Life
1997
- Rachel Manley – Drumblair
Also shortlisted:
- Wade Davis – One River
- Catherine Dunphy – Morgentaler
- Terry Glavin – This Ragged Place
- Blair Stonechild and Bill Waiser – Loyal till Death
1996
- John Ralston Saul – The Unconscious Civilization
Also shortlisted:
- Roy MacGregor – The Home Team
- T.F. Rigelhof – A Blue Boy in a Black Dress
- Lake Sagaris – After the First Death
- Merilyn Simonds – The Convict Lover
1995
- Rosemary Sullivan – Shadow Maker
Also shortlisted:
- Charles Foran – The Last House of Ulster
- Linda McQuaig – Shooting the Hippo
- Sid Marty – Leaning on the Wind
1994
- John A. Livingston – Rogue Primate
Also shortlisted:
- Sharon Butala – The Perfection of the Morning
- Denise Chong – The Concubine's Children
- Joan Haggerty – The Invitation
- Peter Larisey – Light for a Cold Land
1993
- Karen Connelly – Touch the Dragon
Also shortlisted:
- Marq de Villiers – The Heartbreak Grape
- Marian Fowler – In a Gilded Cage
- Jane Jacobs – Systems of Survival
- Noël Mostert – Frontiers
1992
- Maggie Siggins – Revenge of the Land
Also shortlisted:
- Michael Bliss – Plague
- Ken Cuthbertson – Inside
- Michael R. Marrus – Mr. Sam
1991
- Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo – Occupied Canada
Also shortlisted:
- Northrop Frye – Words With Power
- Kristjana Gunnars – Zero Hour
- D.L. (Lorne) MacDonald – Poor Polidori
- Rosemary Sullivan – By Heart
1990
- Stephen Clarkson & Christina McCall – Trudeau and Our Times
Also shortlisted:
- Timothy Findley – Inside Memory
- Eugene Forsey – A Life on the Fringe
- Ron Graham – God's Dominion
- James King – The Last Modern
1989
- Robert Calder – Willie
Also shortlisted:
- Janice Boddy – Wombs and Alien Spirits
- Robert MacNeil – Wordstruck
- Dale A. Russell – An Odyssey in Time
1988
- Anne Collins – In the Sleep Room
Also shortlisted:
- Pierre Berton – The Arctic Grail
- Alan A. Borovoy – When Freedoms Collide
- Edith Iglauer – Fishing with John
1987
- Michael Ignatieff – The Russian Album
Also shortlisted:
- Janice Kulyk Keefer – Under Eastern Eyes
- P.K. Page – Brazilian Journal
1986
- Northrop Frye – Northrop Frye on Shakespeare
Also shortlisted:
- Claude Bissell – The Imperial Canadian
- Phyllis Grosskurth – Melanie Klein
- Witold Rybczynski – Home
1985
- Ramsay Cook – The Regenerators
Also shortlisted:
- Michael D. Behiels – Prelude to Quebec's Quiet Revolution
- John Herd Thompson – Canada 1922-1939
- P.B. Waite – The Man from Halifax
1984
- Sandra Gwyn – The Private Capital
Also shortlisted:
- Bob Beal and Rod Macleod – Prairie Fire
- Graham Fraser – P.Q.
1983
- Jeffery Williams – Byng of Vimy
Also shortlisted:
- Ken Dryden – The Game
- H.S. Ferns – Reading from Left to Right
1982
- Christopher Moore – Louisbourg Portraits
Also shortlisted:
- Northrop Frye – The Great Code
- Christina McCall-Newman – Grits
1981
- George Calef – Caribou and the barren-lands
Also shortlisted:
- Claude Bissell – The Young Vincent Massey
- Elspeth Cameron – Hugh MacLennan
1980
- Jeffrey Simpson – Discipline of Power
Also shortlisted:
- John Fraser – The Chinese
- Donald MacKay – Scotland Farewell
1979
- Maria Tippett – Emily Carr
Also shortlisted:
- Robert Bothwell & William Kilbourn – C.D. Howe
- Larry Pratt & John Richards – Prairie Capitalism
1978
- Roger Caron – Go-Boy!
1977
- Frank Scott – Essays on the Constitution
1976
- Carl Berger – The Writing of Canadian History
1975
- Marion MacRae & Anthony Adamson – Hallowed Walls
1974
- Charles Ritchie – The Siren Years
1973
- Michael Bell – Painters in a New Land
1971
- Pierre Berton – The Last Spike
1967
- Norah Story – The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature
1966
- George Woodcock – The Crystal Spirit
1965
- James Eayrs – In Defence of Canada
1964
- Phyllis Grosskurth – John Addington Symonds
1963
- J.M.S. Careless – Brown of the Globe
1962
- Marshall McLuhan – The Gutenberg Galaxy
1961
- T.A. Goudge – The Ascent of Life
1960
- Frank H. Underhill – In Search of Canadian Liberalism
1958
- Pierre Berton – Klondike
- Joyce Hemlow – The History of Fanny Burney
1957
- Bruce Hutchison – Canada: Tomorrow's Giant
- Thomas H. Raddall – The Path of Destiny
1956
- Pierre Berton – The Mysterious North
- Joseph Lister Rutledge – Century of Conflict
1955
- N.J. Berrill – Man's Emerging Mind
- Donald G. Creighton – John A. Macdonald, The Old Chieftain
1954
- Hugh MacLennan – Thirty and Three
- A.R.M. Lower – This Most Famous Stream
1953
- N.J. Berrill – Sex and the Nature of Things
- J.M.S. Careless – Canada, A Story of Challenge
1952
- Bruce Hutchison – The Incredible Canadian
- Donald G. Creighton – John A. Macdonald, The Young Politician
1951
- Josephine Phelan – The Ardent Exile
- Frank MacKinnon – The Government of Prince Edward Island
1950
- Marjorie Wilkins Campbell – The Saskatchewan
- W.L. Morton – The Progressive Party in Canada
1949
- Hugh MacLennan – Cross-country
- R. MacGregor Dawson – Democratic Government in Canada
1948
- Thomas H. Raddall – Halifax, Warden of the North
- C.P. Stacey – The Canadian Army, 1939-1945
1947
- William Sclater – Haida
- R. MacGregor Dawson – The Government of Canada
1946
- Philip Grove – In Search of Myself Frederick
- A.R.M. Lower – Colony to Nation
1945
- Evelyn M. Richardson – We Keep a Light
- Ross Munro – Gauntlet to Overlord
1944
- Dorothy Duncan – Partner in Three Worlds
- Edgar McInnis – The War: Fourth Year
1943
- John D. Robins – The Incomplete Anglers
- E.K. Brown – On Canadian Poetry
1942
- Bruce Hutchison – The Unknown Country
- Edgar McInnis – The Unguarded Frontier
1941
- Emily Carr – Klee Wyck
1940
- J.F.C. Wright – Slava Bohu
1939
- Laura G. Salverson – Confessions of an Immigrant's Daughter
1938
- John Murray Gibbon – Canadian Mosaic
1937
- Stephen Leacock – My Discovery of the West
1936
- T.B. Roberton – T.B.R. - newspaper pieces