2017 Literary Awards

During the ceremony, Her Excellency congratulated the winners of the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Awards for their accomplishments.

The Governor General presented the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Awards during a ceremony at Rideau Hall.

Christian Guay-Poliquin won his first Governor General’s Literary Award for Le poids de la neige. This novel has also garnered the Prix littéraire des collégiens, the Prix des lycéens AIEQ and the Prix littéraire France-Québec, as well as being shortlisted for several other awards.

Graeme Wood won his first Governor General’s Literary Award with The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State. He is a national correspondent for The Atlantic, and has also written for The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, and many other publications.

Serge Bouchard won his first Governor General’s Literary Award for Les Yeux tristes de mon camion. With degrees in anthropology from both McGill and Laval, he is passionate about history and Indigeneity.

With Dimanche napalm, Sébastien David won his first Governor General’s Literary Award. An actor, author and stage director, he directs his own theatre company (La Bataille), regularly teaches at the National Theatre School of Canada, and sits on the theatre jury of the Conseil des arts de Montréal.

Richard Harrison won his first Governor General’s Literary Award with On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood. He was a GGBooks finalist for Big Breath of a Wish in 1998.

Louise Dupré won her second Governor General’s Literary Award for La main hantée. Throughout her career she has published some 20 books that have earned many awards and distinctions.

Jacques Goldstyn won his first Governor General’s Literary Award for his book Azadah, which achieves the difficult goal of discussing a serious subject with a touch of poetry.

Cherie Dimaline won her first Governor General’s Literary Award with The Marrow Thieves. She is an author and editor from the Georgian Bay Métis community whose award winning fiction has been published and anthologized internationally.

The Governor General’s Literary Awards, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, are Canada’s oldest and most prestigious awards for English-and French-language Canadian literature.