Call for Entries: Governor General’s Literary Awards (Canada)

Categories

• The Governor General’s Literary Awards are given annually to one English-language and one French-language book in each of the following 7 categories:
  • Fiction
  • Non-fiction
  • Poetry
  • Drama
  • Young People’s Literature – Text
  • Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books
  • Translation (from French to English and from English to French)
• The awards are for literary and artistic merit; publishers must only submit books that they deem to be outstanding in these regards.

Prize Information

• $25,000 prize: to the eligible creator(s) of each winning book.
• $3,000 grant: to the publishing house of each winning title for the promotion of the winning book.
• $1,000 prize: to each of the non-winning finalists.

Eligibility Criteria

• The books must be submitted to the Canada Council by an eligible publisher.
• Publishing houses must:
  • publish books based on an editorial selection process
  • be committed to a sustained trade book publishing program, consisting of titles by a variety of authors. New publishers with fewer than 4 trade titles in print must attest to their commitment to the book(s) in consideration over a sustained period.
  • pay royalties or financially compensate the author, translator or illustrator for all submitted titles
  • have established a marketplace presence through distribution in Canadian bookstores and through marketing and public awareness efforts
  • have no more than 25% of its yearly publications written, illustrated or translated by its owners, family or employees
  • meet basic professional standards of publishing.
• Author, translator and illustrator eligibility:
  • The author must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada as defined by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. They do not need to be living in Canada. Authors must be living and at least 18 years old on the date of book publication. Authors, translators and illustrators may not submit their own books; they must be nominated by an eligible book publisher:
    • For the Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books category and for all graphic novels, both the author and illustrator must meet these criteria.
    • For the Translation category, the translator must meet these criteria. The author of the original work must be a Canadian citizen or have permanent resident status but does not need to be living on the date of publication.
• Book eligibility:
  • The main language of all books must be English or French.
  • Books must:
    • have an ISBN
    • have a print run of at least 250 copies
    • have at least 48 pages between the covers, except for children’s illustrated books which must have a minimum of 24 printed pages
    • be the first Canadian or first foreign trade edition.
  • Texts may have been previously published in magazines.
  • Adaptations may be eligible. An eligible adaptation is the new form of a literary work that is an interpretation of an existing text that has been significantly modified and transformed into an original new work.

Ineligibility Criteria

• The following books are ineligible:
  • self-published books
  • books for which the author, translator or illustrator contributed financially towards the publication costs
  • books that are only available in electronic format
  • ghostwritten books by an anonymous author that is not credited for the publication
  • textbooks, academic, scholarly and other specialized publications, academic theses, pedagogical or educational books, reference books, bibliographies, directories, conference proceedings
  • guidebooks, how-to and self-help books, books that focus on self-actualization or self-improvement
  • coffee-table books, cookbooks, exhibition catalogues, film scripts, testimonials, diaries, transcripts of interviews, collected letters, trivia books, books of quotations, jokes, anecdotes or sayings, and books of minimal critical content
  • anthologies and collections of texts by more than one author (normally under the direction of an editor).

Assessment Criteria

• Each peer assessment committee must select 1 winning title and up to 4 additional books as finalists:
  • Eligible books will be assessed according to literary merit.
  • For the Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books category, both literary and artistic merit will be assessed. The committee will evaluate the text and the illustrations and how well the two components complement one another.
  • For the Translation category, the literary merit of the translation will be assessed.

For more information, visit Canada Council for the Arts.