Nominations for the GGs are in!

From Wikipedia, here's the scoop on the Governor-General's Awards. This year's nominees follow.

"Since their creation in 1937, the Governor General's Literary Awards have become one of Canada's most prestigious prizes, awarded in both French and English in seven categories: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, children's literature (one each for text and illustration), and translation. The awards were created by the John Buchan, Baron Tweedsmuir, himself the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps. The awards first honoured only two authors each year, and only those who wrote in English. Then, in 1957 the awards were put under the administration of the Canada Council for the Arts and a cash prize began to be awarded to the winner. By 1980, the council began to announce the finalists for the awards a month before they were presented in order to attract more media attention, and in 2007 the cash prize was increased to $25,000.

During her tenure from 1999 to 2005, Adrienne Clarkson made an effort to obtain for the Governor General's study copies of every Governor General's Literary Awards winning book from fairs and second hand shops. As of 2004 there remained only two titles unrepresented."

GOVERNOR-GENERAL NOMINEES FOR 2009:

FICTION

Michael Crummey, St. John’s, N.L., Galore

Annabel Lyon, New Westminster, B.C., The Golden Mean

Alice Munro, Clinton, Ont., Too Much Happiness

Kate Pullinger, London, England; originally B.C., The Mistress of Nothing

Deborah Willis,Victoria, Vanishing and Other Stories

POETRY

David W. McFadden, Toronto, Be Calm, Honey

Philip Kevin Paul, Brentwood Bay, B.C., Little Hunger

Sina Queyras, Montreal, Expressway Carmine Starnino, Montreal, This Way Out

David Zieroth, North Vancouver, B.C., The Fly in Autumn

DRAMA

Beverley Cooper, Toronto, Innocence Lost: A Play about Steven Truscott

Kevin Loring, Vancouver, Where the Blood Mixes

Joan MacLeod, Victoria, Another Home Invasion

Hannah Moscovitch, Toronto, East of Berlin Michael Nathanson, Winnipeg, Talk

NON-FICTION

Randall Hansen, Toronto, Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-45 Trevor Herriot, Regina, Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds

Eric S. Margolis, Toronto, American Raj: Liberation or Domination?

Eric Siblin, Westmount, Que., The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece

M.G. Vassanji, Toronto, A Place Within: Rediscovering India

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

Text

Shelley Hrdlitschka, North Vancouver, B.C., Sister Wife

Sharon Jennings, Toronto, Home Free Caroline Pignat, Ottawa, Greener Grass: The Famine Years

Robin Stevenson,Victoria, A Thousand Shades of Blue

Tim Wynne-Jones, Perth, Ont., The Uninvited

Illustration

Rachel Berman, Victoria, Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine FrogIrene Luxbacher, Toronto, The Imaginary GardenJirina Marton, Colborne, Ont., Bella’s TreeLuc Melanson, Laval, Que., My Great Big MammaNingeokuluk Teevee, Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Alego

TRANSLATION

French to English

Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott, Montreal, A Slight Case of Fatigue Jo-Anne Elder, Fredericton, One David Homel and Fred A. Reed, Montreal, Wildlives Susan Ouriou ,Calgary, Pieces of Me Fred A. Reed, Montreal, Empire of Desire: The Abolition of Time