The Governor General's Award for English-language poetry or drama was a Canadian literary award that annually recognized one Canadian writer for a work of poetry or drama published in English. It was one of the Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit from 1937 to 1980 (publication years, which conventionally date the awards). After 1980 it was divided into the award for English-language poetry and award for English-language drama. The Governor General's Awards program is administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.
The program was created in 1937 and inaugurated that November for 1936 publications in two English-language categories, conventionally called the 1936 awards. The poetry or drama award was introduced one year later, as one of three 1937 Governor General's Awards.
Winners
1930s YearAuthorTitle 1937 E. J. Pratt The Fable of the Goats 1938 Kenneth Leslie By Stubborn Stars 1939 Arthur S. Bourinot Under the Sun
1940s YearAuthorTitle 1940 E. J. Pratt Brébeuf and His Brethren 1941 Anne Marriott Calling Adventurers! 1942 Earle Birney David and Other Poems 1943 A. J. M. Smith News of the Phoenix 1944 Dorothy Livesay Day and Night 1945 Earle Birney Now is Time 1946 Robert Finch Poems 1947 Dorothy Livesay Poems for People 1948 A.M. Klein The Rocking Chair and Other Poems 1949 James Reaney The Red Heart
1950s YearAuthorTitle 1950 James Wreford Watson Of Time and the Lover 1951 Charles Tory Bruce The Mulgrave Road 1952 E. J. Pratt Towards the Last Spike 1953 Douglas LePan The Net and the Sword 1954 P. K. Page The Metal and the Flower 1955 Wilfred Watson Friday's Child 1956 Robert Ford A Window on the North 1957 Jay Macpherson The Boatman 1958 James Reaney A Suit of Nettles 1959 Irving Layton Red Carpet for the Sun
1960s YearAuthorTitle 1960 Margaret Avison Winter Sun 1961 Robert Finch Acis in Oxford 1962 James Reaney Twelve Letters to a Small Town and The Killdeer and Other Plays 1963 No award presented 1964 Raymond Souster The Colour of the Times 1965 Al Purdy The Cariboo Horses 1966 Margaret Atwood The Circle Game 1967 Eli Mandel An Idiot Joy Alden Nowlan Bread, Wine and Salt 1968 Leonard Cohen Selected Poems 1956–68 1969 George Bowering Rocky Mountain Foot and The Gangs of Kosmos Gwendolyn MacEwen The Shadow-Maker
1970s YearAuthorTitle 1970 bpNichol The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid Michael Ondaatje The Collected Works of Billy the Kid 1971 John Glassco Selected Poems 1972 Dennis Lee Civil Elegies and Other Poems John Newlove Lies 1973 Miriam Mandel Lions at Her Face 1974 Ralph Gustafson Fire on Stone 1975 Milton Acorn The Island Means Minago 1976 Joe Rosenblatt Top Soil 1977 D. G. Jones Under the Thunder the Flowers Light Up the Earth 1978 Patrick Lane Poems New and Selected 1979 Michael Ondaatje There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do Erín Moure Empire, York Street Susan Musgrave A Man to Marry, a Man to Bury
1980s YearAuthorTitle 1980 Stephen Scobie McAlmon's Chinese Opera Douglas Lochhead High Marsh Road See Governor General's Award for English-language poetry and Governor General's Award for English-language drama for 1981 and after.
References "Governor General's Literary Awards" [table of winners, 1936–1999]. online guide to writing in canada (track0.com/ogwc). Retrieved 2015-08-18.
External links Governor General award winners at Faded Page