Governor General's Literary Award. Winners. Shortlists. 1936 to present

Michael Ondaatje Reels in Number Five at Governor Generals for Divisadero

Ottawa, November 27, 2007 – The Canada Council for the Arts announced today the names of the winners of the 2007 Governor General’s Literary Awards, in English and in French, in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature (text and illustration) and translation.

Nine of this year’s winners are receiving Governor General’s Literary Awards for the first time. For Michael Ondaatje, winner of the 2007 award in English-language fiction for Divisadero, this is his fifth award, tying the record set by the late Hugh MacLennan for the most Governor General’s Awards in the prize’s history. Other previous winners receiving awards this year include Daniel Danis (French-language drama), Serge Patrice Thibodeau (French-language poetry), Nigel Spencer (French-to-English translation), and collaborators Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné (English-to-French translation)

Michael Ondaatje took a philosophical approach to winning his fifth Governor General's Award , tying the record set by Canadian literary icon Hugh MacLennan.

"I take one book at a time so it's not like a stamp collection," Ondaatje said when asked how he felt picking up his fifth award. "I don't have that ambition.

"But it feels very personal and this book for me was a very personal book and difficult book and risky book so it meant a lot to get the award for this book."

Tying the record of MacLennan, who wrote such landmark books as "Two Solitudes" and "The Watch That Ends the Night," also has a special meaning to Ondaatje, who came to Canada from Sri Lanka in 1962.

Ondaatje, who lives in Toronto now but initially resided in Montreal, said the first novels he read about his new country were written by MacLennan and Leonard Cohen.

"It was the first time I read books about this place and that was so important to me. Those writers, they are still with me, so in that sense it's an honour."

Ondaatje won in the fiction category for "Divisadero," the story of the intersecting lives of a father and his teenage daughters who work their farm with the help of an enigmatic young man.

They have a makeshift family until it is ripped apart by physical and emotional violence that turns their lives upside down.

Other winners announced at a ceremony in Montreal included Toronto's Colleen Murphy, who picked up the drama prize for The December Man, and Don Domanski of Halifax, who won in poetry for All Our Wonder Unavenged.

Fiction

Michael Ondaatje, Toronto, for Divisadero
(McClelland & Stewart; distributed by Random House of Canada) (ISBN 978-0-7710-6872-0)

Lyricism and whimsy are necessary ingredients of brilliant narrative language, and Michael Ondaatje achieves this magnificently in Divisadero. He establishes, in excellent measure, his mastery of poetic seduction, while mindful to include tenderness, compassion and grace. Grace, after all, is the ultimate gift which Ondaatje offers us in Divisadero.

Sylvain Trudel, Quebec City, for La mer de la Tranquillité
(Les éditions Les Allusifs; distributed by Gallimard/Socadis) (ISBN 978-2-9228-6846-3)

This collection burns with the brilliant flame of Sylvain Trudel’s language as he conjures terrible, unforgettable worlds. To read him is an unforgettable and stunning journey from which we do not emerge unscathed.

Poetry

Don Domanski, Halifax, for All Our Wonder Unavenged
(Brick Books; distributed by LitDistCo) (ISBN 978-1-894078-58-6)

Stunningly beautiful and delicate, All Our Wonder Unavenged is a deeply moving vision about the intricacies of the everyday world. A spiritual and metaphysical triumph.

Serge Patrice Thibodeau, Moncton (NB), Seul on est
(Les Éditions Perce-Neige; distributed by Prologue) (ISBN 978-2-922992-33-5)

This is a long poem on the solitary being, imagined, then written like a motif that has been worked in myriad ways in a polished style. The poet’s mastery of language is apparent, with a conciseness that never gives in to facileness. Serge Patrice Thibodeau avoids all the potential traps of literary constraints. The verses give and take meaning in a rhythm and voice that are sustained from the start.

Drama

Colleen Murphy, Toronto, for The December Man (L’homme de décembre)
(Playwrights Canada Press; distributed by publisher) (ISBN 978-0-88754-595-5)

The December Man (L’homme de décembre) is a tragedy in which the humanity of the characters gives the play a surprising buoyancy. Heartbreaking yet never sentimental, spare yet complex, with a flawless structure, this is a brave and important play.

Daniel Danis, St-David-de-Falardeau (QC), for Le chant du Dire-Dire
(Leméac Éditeur; distributed by Prologue) (ISBN 978-2-7609-0402-6)

Revealing the language of a great contemporary poet, this fable by Daniel Danis – terrifying and magnificent, violent and sensual, with a deviant oral character – connects with the great mythological tales.

Non-fiction

Karolyn Smardz Frost, Collingwood (ON), for I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad
(Thomas Allen Publishers; distributed by Thomas Allen & Sons) (ISBN 978-0-88762-250-2)

I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land is a triumphant blend of archaeological and historical research with literary story-telling. Karolyn Smardz Frost uses the flight of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn from slavery in Kentucky to freedom in Toronto to bring the Underground Railroad and its passengers to life in remarkably rich detail. Moving and informative in the best sense, the book will become an instant classic.

Annette Hayward, Kingston (ON), for La querelle du régionalisme au Québec (1904-1931): Vers l’autonomisation de la littérature québécoise
(Éditions du Nordir; distributed by Prologue) (ISBN 978-2-89531-049-5)

Annette Hayward sheds a decisive light on the quarrel that opposed regionalist writers and the so-called ‘exotic’ poets in the first decades of the twentieth century. The result is a resounding success, and a model of literary historiography. With a sober and elegant style, the author combines fine analysis, rigorous methodology and a careful treatment of documentary sources.

Children’s Literature – Text

Iain Lawrence, Gabriola Island (BC), for Gemini Summer
(Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House; distributed by Random House of Canada) (ISBN 978-0-385-73089-1 (trade) / 978-0-385-90111-6 (glb))

Just as the first appearance of a stray dog ignites “a little spark of happiness” in nine-year-old Danny River, Gemini Summer kindles subtle yet powerful emotions that linger well after one has turned the final page. Lawrence’s story is brilliantly imagined, his prose clear and poetic, his characters irresistible.

François Barcelo, Montreal, for La fatigante et le fainéant
(Soulières éditeur; distributed by Diffusion du livre Mirabel) (ISBN 978-2-89607-043-5)

The work by François Barcelo is disarming in its simplicity, even as it tackles the complex theme of intergenerational relationships. Barcelo takes a fresh look at a subject that is as old as it is profoundly human. The voices of the two sensitive characters ring true and the story is well developed. The accessible language is imbued with a tenderness that will leave no reader untouched.

Children’s Literature – Illustration

Duncan Weller, Thunder Bay (ON), for The Boy from the Sun
(Simply Read Books; distributed by Publishers Group Canada / Raincoast Business Services)(ISBN 978-0894965-33-0)

Duncan Weller’s The Boy from the Sun, with its striking mix of techniques, lures the unsuspecting reader away from a dark, gloomy and featureless industrial-urban milieu into a brilliantly coloured alternative world of light, colour and hope, which, in a twist in a pictorial narration, turns out to be the real world they were living in all along. This charming, fresh and joyful book perfectly melds story and image, to both deliver its message and form a thoroughly satisfying whole.

Geneviève Côté, Montreal, for La petite rapporteuse de mots, text by Danielle Simard.
(Les éditions Les 400 coups; distributed by Diffusion Dimedia) (ISBN 978-2-89540-148-3)

We are dazzled by the refinement and intelligence of the illustrations by Geneviève Côté, and by the simple and effective layout. The use of space and the addition of white reinforce the emotion. The technique of successive, reworked photocopies creates a muted, blurry effect that poignantly translates the fading and gradual loss of memory.

Translation

Nigel Spencer, Montreal, for Augustino and the Choir of Destruction
(House of Anansi Press; distributed by HarperCollins Canada) (ISBN 978-0-88784-752-3)
English translation of Augustino et le choeur de la destruction by Marie-Claire Blais (Les Éditions du Boréal)

Nigel Spencer has performed a tour de force in Augustino and the Choir of Destruction, his translation of the third volume in Marie-Claire Blais’ trilogy. The poignant and intricate stories of the novel’s astonishing constellation of characters are sensitively conveyed through his moving and innovative use of language. Spencer has risen to the extraordinary challenge of rendering Blais’ uninterrupted stream of hallucinatory prose into an accomplished and lyrical translation.

Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné, Montreal, for Dernières notes
(Les éditions Les Allusifs; distributed by Gallimard/Socadis) (ISBN 978-2-922868-43-2)
French translation of Last Notes and Other Stories by Tamas Dobozy (Phyllis Bruce Book, HarperCollins Publishers)

Translators Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné have successfully transposed the diversity of narrative registers (journalism, introspection, recollection) and styles, going from the ironic all the way to the grotesque. They have thus recreated the distancing effect of exile, where the bizarre and the familiar are inseparable.

Winners 1936 to present

Due to the large number of categories and the history of the award a cumulative list of winnner is available from Governor General’s Literary Awards site in PDF form.