Each winner of the 1979 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts. The 1979 awards were the first for which a shortlist of finalists was released a month before the presentation of the awards.
English CategoryWinnerNominated Fiction Jack Hodgins, The Resurrection of Joseph BourneMargaret Atwood, Life Before Man Matt Cohen, The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone Non-fiction Maria Tippett, Emily CarrRobert Bothwell and William Kilbourn, C.D. Howe Larry Pratt and John Richards, Prairie Capitalism Poetry or drama Michael Ondaatje, There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to DoErín Moure, Empire, York Street Susan Musgrave, A Man to Marry, a Man to Bury
French CategoryWinnerNominated Fiction Marie-Claire Blais, Le Sourd dans la villeSuzanne Jacob, La Survie Suzanne Paradis, Miss Charlie Non-fiction Dominique Clift and Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos, Le fait anglais au QuébecDaniel Latouche, Une société de l'ambiguïté Pierre Nepveu, Les mots à l'écoute Poetry or drama Robert Melançon, Peinture aveugleMarcel Bélanger, Migrations André Roy, Les passions du samedi
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