The Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a non-fiction book written in English. Since 1987 it is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, seven each for creators of English- and French-language books. Originally presented by the Canadian Authors Association, the Governor General's Awards program became a project of the Canada Council for the Arts in 1959.
The program was created in 1937 and inaugurated that November for 1936 publications in two English-language categories, conventionally called the 1936 Governor General's Awards. Beginning in 1942 there were two winners annually, with separate awards presented for creative non-fiction and academic non-fiction; however, this was discontinued after the 1958 awards, and then returned to a single non-fiction category.
The winners alone were announced until 1979, when Canada Council released in advance a shortlist of three nominees. Since then, the advance shortlist has numbered three to five.
Winners and nominees 1930s +Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 1936-1939 YearAuthorTitle 1936 TBR: Newspaper Pieces 1937 My Discovery of the West 1938 Canadian Mosaic 1939 Confessions of an Immigrant's Daughter
1940s +Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 1940-1949 YearAuthorTitle 1940 Slava Bohu 1941 Klee Wyck 1942 1943 On Canadian Poetry 1944 Partner in Three Worlds 1945 Gauntlet to Overlord We Keep a Light 1946 In Search of Myself Colony to Nation 1947 Haida 1948 Halifax, Warden of the North 1949 Cross-country Democratic Government in Canada
1950s +Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 1950-1959 YearAuthorTitle 1950 1951 1952 John A. Macdonald, The Young Politician 1953 Canada, A Story of Challenge Sex and the Nature of Things 1954 Thirty and Three This Most Famous Stream 1955 Man's Emerging Mind John A. Macdonald, The Old Chieftain 1956 Century of Conflict 1957 Canada: Tomorrow's Giant 1958 Klondike 1959No award presented
1960s +Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 1960-1969 YearAuthorTitle 1960 In Search of Canadian Liberalism 1961 1962 1963 Brown of the Globe 1964 John Addington Symonds 1965 In Defence of Canada 1966 1967 1968 Hunting Tigers Under Glass 1969No award presented
1970s +Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 1970-1979 YearAuthorTitle 1970No award presented 1971 1972No award presented 1973 Painters in a New Land 1974 1975 and Anthony Adamson Hallowed Walls 1976 1977 Essays on the Constitution 1978 Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars 1979 Emily Carr and William Kilbourn C.D. Howe and John Richards Prairie Capitalism
1980s +Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 1980-1989 YearAuthorTitle 1980 Discipline of Power: The Conservative Interlude and the Liberal Restoration Portrait of a People Scotland Farewell: The People of the Hector 1981 Caribou and the Barren-Lands Hugh MacLennan: A Writer's Life 1982 Louisbourg Portraits: Life in an Eighteenth- Century Garrison Town Grits: An Intimate Portrait of The Liberal Party 1983 Byng of Vimy: General and Governor General Reading from Left to Right: One Man's Political History 1984 Sandra Gwyn and Rod Macleod Prairie Fire: The 1885 North-West Rebellion P.Q.: René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois in Power 1985 Prelude to Quebec's Quiet Revolution: Liberalism versus Neo-nationalism Canada 1922-1939: Decades of Discord 1986 Northrop Frye on Shakespeare Melanie Klein Home 1987 Under Eastern Eyes Brazilian Journal 1988 In the Sleep Room When Freedoms Collide Fishing with John 1989 Willie: The Life of W. Somerset Maugham Wombs and Alien Spirits Wordstruck
1990s +Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 1990-1999 YearAuthorTitle 1990 and Christina McCall Trudeau and Our Times Inside Memory: Pages from a Writer's Workbook God's Dominion: A Sceptic's Quest 1991 and Robert Calihoo Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past Words With Power Zero Hour Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography of the Author of "The Vampyre" By Heart: Elizabeth Smart, A Life 1992 Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm Plague: A Story of Smallpox in Montreal Inside: The Biography of John Gunther Mr. Sam: The Life and Times of Samuel Bronfman 1993 Touch the Dragon In a Gilded Cage Systems of Survival Frontiers 1994 Rogue Primate: An Exploration of Human Domestication Light for a Cold Land: Lawren Harris's Work and Life-An Interpretation 1995 Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen Shooting the Hippo Leaning on the Wind 1996 After the First Death: A Journey Through Chile, Time, Mind 1997 Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest Morgentaler: A Difficult Hero This Ragged Place: Travels Across the Landscape and Bill Waiser Loyal Till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion 1998 Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi Mrs. King: The Life and Times of Isabel Mackenzie King Mamie's Children: Three Generations of Prairie Women and Yvonne Johnson Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman 1999 Water Surpassing Wonder William Osler Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood Baltimore's Mansion
2000s +Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 2000-2009 YearAuthorTitleRef. 2000 Notes from the Hyena's Belly River in a Dry Land 2001 Grain of Truth: The Ancient Lessons of Craft Reading Pictures: A History of Love and Hate 2002 Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain Starting Out in the Afternoon: A Mid-Life Journey into Wild Land When Words Deny the World: The Reshaping of Canadian Writing Vis à Vis: Field Notes on Poetry & Wilderness 2003 Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World Vancouver, for Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling 2004 Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda I'll Tell You a Secret: A Memory of Seven Summers Acquainted With the Night: Excursions Through the World After Dark Dark Age Ahead Wisdom & Metaphor 2005 Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books Written in the Flesh: A History of Desire 2006 and Robert Renaud Starlight Tour: The Last, Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild 2007 I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad and Christian Pearce Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume One: 1919-1968 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa Silence of the Songbirds: How We Are Losing the World's Songbirds and What We Can Do to Save Them 2008 Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army God’s Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal and the Dream of Discovery 2009 Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-45 Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds American Raj: Liberation or Domination? (Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World)
2010s +Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 2010-2019 YearAuthorTitleRef. 2010 Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada Burmese Lessons: A Love Story Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-2000 2011 Mordecai: The Life and Times Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times, Volume Two: 1867-1891 Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests 2012 Leonardo and the Last Supper Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest What We Talk About When We Talk About War 2013 Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother 2014 and Alexandra Shimo Up Ghost River: A Chief’s Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History Know the Night: A Memoir of Survival in the Small Hours 2015 Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive Dispatches from the Front: Matthew Halton, Canada's Voice at War Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada's Radical Makeover Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing into Thunderbird 2016 Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (To Everyone) In-Between Days: A Memoir about Living with Cancer Firewater: How Alcohol is Killing My People (and Yours) Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World 2017 Where I Live Now: A Journey through Love and Loss to Healing and Hope Where It Hurts All We Leave Behind: A Reporter's Journey into the Lives of Others 2018 Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age Dead Reckoning: How I Came To Meet the Man Who Murdered My Father Heart Berries and Winnie Yeung Homes: A Refugee Story 2019 To the River: Losing My Brother Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father Tiny Lights for Travellers Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands
2020s +Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 2020-2029YearAuthorTitleRef2020"Michelle Good says celebrating fiction win feels 'petty and selfish' after residential school discovery". CTV News, June 1, 2021."Francesca Ekwuyasi, Billy-Ray Belcourt & Anne Carson among 2020 Governor General's Literary Awards finalists". CBC Books, May 4, 2021.Rebent SinnerDisfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making SpaceShame on Me2021alfabet/alphabet: a memoir of a first language"Inuk author Norma Dunning wins $25K Governor General's fiction prize" . Coast Reporter, November 17, 2021.What I Remember, What I Know: The Life of a High Arctic Exile"Rachel Cusk among fiction finalists for Governor General’s Literary Awards". Toronto Star, October 14, 2021.Revery: A Year of BeesCare of: Letters, Connections, and Cures2022Aki-wayn-zih: A Person as Worthy as the EarthDeborah Dundas, "Sheila Heti, Eli Baxter win 2022 Governor General’s Literary Awards for fiction and non-fiction". Toronto Star, November 16, 2022.All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler and Leanne Betasamosake SimpsonRehearsals for LivingPersephoneʼs Children: A Life in FragmentsGeneration Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis 2023 Unearthing "Anuja Varghese wins Governor General's literary award for fiction". Toronto Star, November 8, 2023. Message in a Bottle "Suzette Mayr, Iain Reid among finalists for Governor General's Literary Awards". Burnaby Now, October 25, 2023. Gendered Islamophobia: My Journey with a Scar(f) Invisible Boy Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls 2024 Niigaan Sinclair Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre Cassandra Drudi, "Jordan Abel, Niigaan Sinclair among 2024 Governor General’s award winners". Quill & Quire, November 13, 2024. Helen Knott Becoming a Matriarch Cassandra Drudi, "Canisia Lubrin, Danny Ramadan among 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award finalists". Quill & Quire, October 8, 2024. Petra Molnar The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Danny Ramadan Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir Astra Taylor The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart 2025 Claire Cameron How to Survive a Bear Attack Nicole Thompson, "Kyle Edwards wins Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction". Toronto Star, November 6, 2025. Shane Neilson What to Feel, How to Feel: Lyric Essays on Neurodivergence and Neurofatherhood "Governor General’s Literary Awards shortlists announced". Quill & Quire, October 21, 2025. Vinh Nguyen The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse Ruby Smith Dίaz Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim “Joe” Fortes Teresa Wong All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey