1996 Governor General's Award Winners Announced!

The Governor General's Literary Awards were announced last Tuesday with two children's authors and one children's illustrator among the honoured recipients of the prestigious $10,000 prize.

Paul Yee was the winner in the Children's Literature - Text category for Ghost Train while Eric Beddows received the Children's Literature - Illustration award for The Rooster's Gift. For French-language Children's Literature only a Text category was awarded this year and that winner was Gilles Tibo for Noémie - Le Secret de Madame Lumbago.

Winners were chosen by independent peer juries appointed by the Canada Council from among a selection of titles published in the last year. The English-language jury for Children's Literature - Text included William Bell, Peter Eyvindson and Tololwa Mollel while the Illustration jury consisted of Geoff Butler, Jan Sovak and C.J. Taylor.

The other nominees for English-language children's text included:

Jan Andrews for Keri

David Boyd for The Bottom Drawer

Gillian Chan for Glory Days and Other Stories

Don Gilmour for The Fabulous Song

The other nominees for illustration were:

Alan and Lea Daniel for Sody Salleratus

Wang Kui for The Wise Washerman

Johnny Wales for Gruntle Piggle Takes Off

Werner Zimmermann for Whatever You Do, Don't Go Near That Canoe!

In the adult categories, other English-language winners included Guy Vanderhaeghe for fiction, John Ralston Saul for non-fiction; E.D. Blodgett for poetry and Colleen Wagner for drama. French-language winners were Marie-Claire Blais for fiction, Serge Patrice Thibodeau for poetry, Normand Charette for drama and Michel Freitag for non-fiction. Translation winners were Linda Gaboriau and Christiane Teasdale.

The awards were presented at a ceremony in Ottawa on Tuesday, November 12, by the Governor General, His Excellency the Right Honourable Romeo Le Blanc.

Copyright © 1996 the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

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The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364