Thomas King leads Governor General’s Literary Awards pack

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Thomas King leads Governor General’s Literary Awards pack

Author and Access Copyright affiliate Thomas King leads the list of fourteen Canadian authors, illustrators and translators announced on November 18 as winners of this year’s Governor General’s Literary Awards. 

King is the English Fiction award winner for The Back of the Turtle (HarperCollins Publishers) and is one of two Access Copyright affiliates honoured this year. Joining King is author and affiliate Michael Harris, whose The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection (HarperCollins Publishers) was selected for the English Non-fiction prize.

The publishers whose works were included on this year’s list are mix of larger and smaller presses and include Arsenal Pulp Press, Brick Books, Groundwood Books, HarperCollins Publishers, McGill-Queen’s University Press and Playwrights Canada Press.

Each Governor General’s Literary Awards winner will receive a prize of $25,000 while their respective publishers will each get $3,000 for promotional and marketing purposes. Each runner-up on this year’s award shortlist will receive $1,000 as well.

Winners will be feted in Ottawa by Gov. Gen. David Johnston at Rideau Hall on November 26.

The Governor General’s Literary Awards, through the Canada Council of the Arts, dole out prizes annually to English and French authors in seven categories, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, children’s writing as well as illustration, and translation.