Misty River Books

Winners of 2009 Governor General’s Literary Awards announced by the Canada Council for the Arts

Montreal, November 17, 2009 – The names of winners of the 2009 Governor General’s Literary Awards were announced today by the Canada Council for the Arts. The seven English and seven French awards are given to authors, illustrators and translators and in the categories of fiction, poetry, drama, non‑fiction, children’s literature
(text and illustration) and translation.

For the first time in the history of the Awards one book wins in both categories of children’s literature (text and illustration): Harvey by author Hervé Bouchard and illustrator Janice Nadeau, a three-time
Award-winner. Children’s literature was also the focus in the
English-language translation category, with Susan Ouriou winning for her translation of a young adult novel, Pieces of Me, a translation of
La liberté? Connais pas… by Charlotte Gingras. Paule Noyart, winner in French-language translation, takes home her second Award this year for her translation of Camilla Gibb’s Sweetness in the Belly.
M.G. Vassanji, a past finalist in fiction, wins this year in the non-fiction category for his account of his travel in India. This year, 12 of the 14 winners receive this award for the very first time.

The Canada Council funds, administers and promotes the awards the Governor General’s Literary Awards, Canada’s oldest and most prestigious awards for English- and French-language Canadian literature. The value of each award is $25,000 and each winner will also receive a specially-bound copy of the winning book created by Montreal bookbinder Lise Dubois. The publisher of each winning book will receive $3,000 to support promotional activities. Non‑winning finalists will each receive $1,000 in recognition of their selection as finalists, bringing the total value of the awards to approximately $450,000.

Winners

Fiction

Kate Pullinger, London (UK) [originally from Cranbrook,
British Columbia], The Mistress of Nothing.
(McArthur & Company; distributed by the publisher)

In The Mistress of Nothing, Kate Pullinger creates the fascinating character of Sally, maid to Lady Duff Gordon in Victorian times. Over the course of a memorable journey down the Nile with her Lady, Sally comes to realizations about the nature of power – its seductiveness, its elusiveness and its ability to alter the soul in manifold ways.

Julie Mazzieri, Velone-Orneto (France) [originally from
Saint-Paul-de-Chester, Quebec], Le discours sur la tombe de l’idiot.
(Éditions José Corti; distributed by Diffusion Dimédia)

An exceptionally polished novel, the result of an exemplary mastery of narrative. The text is deep, dark and implacable, and the tight, suspenseful writing stays with us long after the book is finished. The author sets herself the challenge of making the story believable, and she has succeeded brilliantly.

Poetry

David Zieroth, North Vancouver, The Fly in Autumn.
(Harbour Publishing; distributed by the publisher)

In The Fly in Autumn, David Zieroth addresses our common and defining human fate – the loneliness that is a rehearsal for death – with a tenderness and buoyancy that shows the reader “how to walk in the dark with flowers.” The intricacy and exuberance of rhyme and the breadth of vision are stunning.

Hélène Monette, Montreal, Thérèse pour joie et orchestre.
(Les Éditions du Boréal; distributed by Diffusion Dimédia)

In Thérèse pour joie et orchestre, the poet transforms the sister she lost to illness into a happy spirit floating over people and places. This elegy orchestrated by Hélène Monette is astonishing in its ability to touch the reader. A magnificent ode in a voice that is generous and powerful.

Drama

Kevin Loring, Vancouver, Where the Blood Mixes.
(Talonbooks; distributed by Publishers Group Canada)

An abducted daughter returns to her wounded community after many years away. Kevin Loring illuminates the complex aftermath of the residential school system and the circumstances of contemporary Aboriginal history through compelling, sympathetic and humorous characters who live as best they can, with courage and strength.

Suzanne Lebeau, Montreal, Le bruit des os qui craquent.
(Leméac Éditeur; distributed by Socadis)

Le bruit des os qui craquent is a rare, courageous and beautiful work. Suzanne Lebeau conveys the devastating effects of war on children with sensitivity and uncompromising rigour. Directly and with heartbreaking lucidity, she broaches the question of individual and collective responsibility, and proposes empathy as the road toward hope and ultimately, redemption.

Non-fiction

M.G. Vassanji, Toronto, A Place Within: Rediscovering India.
(Doubleday Canada; distributed by Random House of Canada)

An utterly brilliant, evocative memoir that ranges across the landscapes of culture, memory, identity and history. M.G. Vassanji’s style – diverse and playful – brings the reader along effortlessly, illuminating the ramshackle roots of self, family, and culture. An outstanding book of self-reflection and persistent insight, A Place Within is the resonant chronicle of a sage, a traveler, a pilgrim.

Nicole V. Champeau, Ottawa, Pointe Maligne : l’infiniment oubliée.
(Les Éditions du Vermillon; distributed by Prologue)

Like a requiem, this book sings of the destruction of the territories of the Upper Saint Lawrence, drowned by dams and depopulated by expropriation. These places have even disappeared from the memories of maps. Around Cornwall, originally called Pointe Maligne, the memory of the founding peoples, Amerindian and French, has been obliterated.

Children’s Literature – Text

Caroline Pignat, Ottawa, Greener Grass: The Famine Years.
(Red Deer Press, a division of Fitzhenry & Whiteside; distributed by the publisher)

Caroline Pignat’s Greener Grass: The Famine Years follows the disintegration of the Byrne family during Ireland’s Great Famine of 1847, when landlords ruled without mercy, children could be taken away to prison, and thousands were left to starve. A timeless story of courage, family loyalty and the resilience of the human spirit.

Hervé Bouchard, Saguenay (Quebec), Harvey.
(Les Éditions de la Pastèque; distributed by Socadis)

Hervé Bouchard makes us feel the confusion and helplessness of a little boy faced with the death of his father. His surprising and extremely sensitive writing is deeply moving. Through a series of poetically powerful metaphors, he allows us the freedom to explore the multiple layers of his story.

Children’s Literature – Illustration

Jirina Marton, Colborne (Ontario), Bella’s Tree, text by Janet Russell.
(Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press; distributed by HarperCollins Canada)

Jirina Marton’s illustrations invite the reader to a winter landscape full of textures and subtle, earthy colour palettes. The Van Gogh-like interior and its warm tones create a holiday season mood that evokes an emotional response. The illustrations are well crafted and capture the imagination and humanity of the everyday lives they portray.

Janice Nadeau, Montreal, Harvey, text by Hervé Bouchard.
(Les Éditions de la Pastèque; distributed by Socadis)

In illustrating a book that stands out for the originality of its language, Janice Nadeau has come up with wonderful ways of depicting the sadness of spring and the melancholy of loss. The subtle drawings dance with the text and give rhythm to the reading. Hervé Bouchard’s Quebec comes alive under the brush strokes of the illustrator.

Translation

Susan Ouriou, Calgary, Pieces of Me.
(Kids Can Press; distributed by University of Toronto Press)
English translation of La liberté? Connais pas… by Charlotte Gingras (Les éditions de la courte échelle)

With Pieces of Me, Susan Ouriou has created a magical rendering of the exquisite original. Tenderly redrawing the portrait of a troubled teenage girl struggling to come into her own, Ouriou has sensitively captured all that is moving, poetic and funny about the novel’s main character in a truly accomplished translation.

Paule Noyart, Bromont (Quebec), Le miel d’Harar.
(Leméac Éditeur / Actes Sud; distributed by Socadis)
French translation of Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
(Anchor Canada)

Paule Noyart shows a keen sensitivity to the poetry of the original. In a true act of literary creation, the expressive liberties the translator has taken serve this culturally-rich novel well. The remarkable quality of her work manages to transcend the limits of the translator’s art – a rare accomplishment indeed.

The peer assessment committees

The finalists and winners for the Governor General’s Literary Awards are chosen by peer assessment committees (seven English and seven French) appointed by the Canada Council. The committees, which met separately, considered all eligible books published between September 1, 2008 and September 30, 2009 for English-language books and between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009 for French-language books. This year 884 titles in the English-language categories and 657 titles in the French-language categories were submitted.

English-language committees

Fiction: Judy Fong Bates (Campbellford, ON), Wayne Johnston (Toronto), Shaena Lambert (Vancouver)
Poetry: Janice Kulyk Keefer (Toronto), George Murray (St. John’s, NL), John Pass (Madeira Park, BC)
Drama: Sally Clark (Vancouver), Bruce McManus (Winnipeg), Drew Hayden Taylor (Curve Lake, ON)
Non-fiction: Stephen Kimber (Halifax), Ross A. Laird (Delta, BC), Nelofer Pazira (Toronto)
Children’s literature – text: Tomson Highway (Noëlville, ON), Pamela Porter (North Saanich, BC), Alice Walsh (Lower Sackville, NS)
Children’s literature – illustration: Kyrsten Brooker (Edmonton), Laura Jolicoeur-Simon (Dartmouth, NS), Leo Yerxa (Ottawa)
Translation: Betty Bednarski (Halifax), Rhonda Mullins (Montreal), John Murrell (Calgary)
French-language committees

French-language committees

Fiction: Marie-Célie Agnant (Montreal), Daniel Poliquin (Parrsboro, NS), Pierre Samson (Montreal)
Poetry: Carole David (Montreal), Paul Chanel Malenfant (Rimouski, QC), Benoît Doyon-Gosselin (Quebec City)
Drama: Marie-Christine Lê Huu (Montreal), Pierre-Yves Lemieux (Montreal), Robert Marinier (Ottawa)
Non-fiction: François Bugingo (Montreal), Madeleine Gagnon (Montreal), Roland Le Huenen (Toronto)
Children’s literature – text: Charlotte Gingras (Morin-Heights, QC), Daniel Marchildon (Penetanguishene, ON), Jean-Michel Schembré (Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval, QC)
Children’s literature – illustration: Sylvie Daigneault (Toronto), Virginie Egger (Montreal), Rafael Sottolichio (Montreal)
Translation: Jean Antonin Billard (Roxton Falls, QC), Anne Malena (Edmonton), Sophie Voillot (Montreal)

Popularity: 7% [?]

ADULT  TITLES

1. Had a Glass: Top 100 Wines for 2009 under $20  James Nevison & Kenji Hodgson  9781552859377 Whitecap Books
Alongside the under $20 reviews (and a special splurge section for when you’re feeling flush), Had a Glass delivers pretty much every other morsel of information the casual, yet dedicated, wine drinker needs to know. Along with easy charts that decode varietals and offer suggestions, a glassware glossary and a section of food and wine pairings, Hodgson and Nevison even suggest wines to match your frame of mind. Where can you find a good Wednesday wine for your middle of the week blues? Only in Had a Glass.

2. Getting to the Bubble: More Stories that Shimmer and Pop  Mike McCardell  9781550174434  Harbour Publishing
Mike McCardell, the legendary Vancouver reporter who tries to restore people’s faith in living after they’ve finished watching the appalling mayhem on the evening news, is back with another collection of simple but irresistible stories: there are the ownerless shoes, sitting day after day in a washroom used mainly by big-time celebrities. There are the big cajones one daren’t mention and the magic dachshund whose poop can clear the snow off driveways.But most of all there’s the tireless reporter combing the streets of his modern big city, looking for inspiring acts of humanity amid the urban roar. And always, always finding them.

3. Tragedy at Second Narrows: The Story of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge  Eric Jamieson  9781550174519  Harbour Publishing
Tragedy at Second Narrows unravels one of Vancouver’s great mysteries with all the appeal of a gripping detective novel. Eric Jamieson has returned to the scene of the tragedy and reconstructed the tragic event with scrupulous care, introducing the entire cast of politicians, construction bosses, engineers and ironworkers; he relives those terrifying moments when the structure began to crack and drop like the bottom was falling out of the world. In the end, readers will have learned about the fascinating world of big-time bridge building and will be left with a searingly clear picture of precisely how a great disaster took shape and plunged to its inevitable conclusion.

4. House Calls by Dogsled: Six Years in an Arctic Medical Outpost  Keith Billington  9781550174236  Harbour Publishing
“People go north for a variety of reasons, some stay for a lifetime, while others can’t wait to leave at the end of whatever term they have signed on for. The north tends to be either loved or hated with equal passion.” These are the words of Keith Billington, who with his wife Muriel, arrived in the Northwest Territories outpost of Fort McPherson, 1,700 miles north of Edmonton, in mid-September 1964. Keith, a nurse, and Muriel, a midwife, were barely into their twenties and fresh from England when they arrived, eager to put their brand new skills to work. Their clients were the Gwich’in people, who taught them how to snowshoe, choose a dog team and live off the land.

5. Beyond the Chilcotin: On the Home Ranch with Pan Phillips  Diana Phillips  9781550174472  Harbour Publishing
Pioneers Pan Phillips and his partner Rich Hobson carved their places in ranching history when they discovered “grass beyond the mountains” in the far reaches of the Chilcotin and founded some of the most isolated ranches in North America. This is the story of Pan Phillips’ youngest daughter Diana, who learned to trap muskrat when she was little more than a toddler, worked with haying crews before she was into her teens and was renowned far and wide as the only person feisty enough to best her legendary father in a slanging match. Beyond the Chilcotin is both an unparalleled chronicle of the old time rancher’s annual round and the testament of a remarkable woman.

6. The Genius of James Barber: His Best Recipes  James Barber  9781550174496  Harbour Publishing
Distinguished fans pay tribute to a nationally beloved, culinary icon, with a mouth-watering collection of recipes. We always knew James Barber played an important role in freeing us from our culinary hang-ups but it wasn’t until he passed away in 2007 that a truly astonishing outpouring of tributes from famous chefs and ordinary cooks alike made clear the full extent of his impact. In this book some of his most distinguished fans get together to collect James’ greatest recipes, from Ginger Tea to Indonesian Fish, and talk about what his art meant to them.

7. Legacy in Wood: The Wahl Family Boat Builders  Ryan Wahl  9781550174335  Harbour Publishing
Centuries before steel, fibreglass, aluminum and automation were applied to shipbuilding, early twentieth century British Columbian shipwrights hand built fish boats entirely out of wood. Legacy in Wood is an illustrated story of one of those shipwrights, Ed Wahl. With the help of his six sons, Wahl created the most successful commercial fish-boat building enterprise on British Columbia’s north coast, and one of the most well known boat shops on the entire British Columbia coast. Threaded with memories of Ed’s sons and the crew of the Wahl boatyards, Legacy in Wood provides a unique look into a family business that enabled the fishing industry to be a mainstay of British Columbia’s economy.

8. Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent  Andrew Nikiforuk  9781553654070  Greystone Books/David Suzuki Foundation
Combining extensive scientific research and compelling writing, Andrew Nikiforuk takes the reader to Fort McMurray, home to some of the world’s largest open-pit mines, and explores this twenty-first-century pioneer town from the exorbitant cost of housing to its more serious social ills. He uncovers a global Deadwood, complete with rapturous engineers, cut-throat cocaine dealers, aimless bush workers, American evangelicals, and the largest population of homeless people in northern Canada. He also explains that this micro-economy supplies gasoline for 50 percent of Canadian vehicles and 16 percent of U.S. demand.

9.  Hello Sweetheart? Gimmie Rewrite! My Life in the Wonderful World of Sports  Jim Taylor  9781550174373  Harbour Publishing
At age seventeen, Jim Taylor began a career in writing as part-time high school sports reporter. Forty-eight years, some 7,500 five-a-week columns, three times as many radio shows and twelve books later, Jim Taylor is undeniably one of Canada’s most loved sports writers. In Hello, Sweetheart? Gimme Rewrite!, Taylor looks back at half a century of sitting in on the sidelines with “the kings and queens of second-guess, the heroes of hindsight.”

10. Rowboat in a Hurricane: My Amazing Journey Across a Changing Atlantic Ocean  Julie Angus  9781553653370  Greystone Books
In 2005–06, Julie Angus rowed 10,000 kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean, becoming the first woman in the world to travel from mainland to mainland in a rowboat. She was accompanied by her fiancé at the time,
Colin Angus, who was completing a round-the-world expedition using human power only. Rowboat in a Hurricane is a gripping adventure story of a woman’s difficult and courageous journey with her partner in a cramped vessel. More important, it is a unique record of an amazing ecosystem, its fascinating inhabitants, and the many threats they face.

CHILDREN’S TITLES

1. A Field Guide to the Identification of Pebbles  Eileen Van der Flier-Keller  9781550173956 Harbour Publishing
A full colour, laminated, accordion folded, easy to use guide with over 80 beautiful photographs of pebbles from beaches and rivers.

2.  A Moose in a Maple-Tree: The All-Canadian 12 Days of Christmas  Troy Townsin  9780973774863  Polyglot Publishing
A Moose in a Maple Tree captures the imagination of readers with its quirky twist on the original Christmas classic while providing visually exciting stimuli that surprise and delight readers. The book can be sung or read aloud and is designed as a learning tool that will instigate discussion about all things Canadian. With Canadian icons, animals and activities this fun story is all set to become a year-round favourite.

3. Welcome Song for Baby  Richard Van Camp  9781551436616  Orca Book Publishers
From renowned First Nations storyteller Richard Van Camp comes a lyrical lullaby for newborns. Complemented with stunning photographs, this evocative board book is perfectly suited as a first book for
every baby.

4. Ramp Rats – A Graphic Guide Adventure  Liam O’Donnell  9781551438801  Orca Book Publishers
Fresh from his adventures in Wild Ride, Marcus is back and helping his cousin, Bounce, learn to skate. Between learning how to ollie and do a 50-50 grind, Bounce and his friends also have to avoid the skate-park goons and take on the outlaw bikers who are terrorizing the small town. Excitement, action and some radical skating tips. Hang on for another wild ride!

5.  Jessie’s Island   Sheryl Mcfarlane 0920501761 Orca Book Publishers
Jessie invites her cousin Thomas from the big city to visit her at her island home. In a time when our children’s entertainment has become increasingly formal and high-tech, Jessie’s Island reminds us of the joy of unstructured play and the pleasures to be found in the natural world around us.

* This list is compiled using data provided by TBM BookManager Ltd.

Popularity: 80% [?]

Fiction

Nino Ricci, Toronto, The Origin of Species.
(Doubleday Canada)
Alex Fratarcangeli, a modern Prufrock, must survive in the multiethnic complexity of Montreal in the 1980s. The Origin of Species is written with great humanity, realism and wit. Told in windowpane prose, this story reads as if it has come up through our collective memory. With the shock of recognition, we gain a new understanding of our fragility and our strength.

Marie-Claire Blais, Westmount, Quebec,
Naissance de Rebecca à l’ère des tourments.
(Les Éditions du Boréal)
The heart of a world in all its maledictions and beauty, the inexhaustible outpouring of life in the darkness of an end that began a long time ago, this breathtaking paroxysm of a novel turns any commonly held vision upside down. Marie-Claire Blais’ transcendental prose illuminates the depths of the characters with an extraordinary light of survival.

Poetry

Jacob Scheier, Toronto, More to Keep Us Warm.
(ECW Press)
More to Keep Us Warm invites the reader into a world of hope, pain, laughter and forgiveness – elements that reconcile the human drama through the power of love and sheer poetic invention. With deep affection for his work, Jacob Scheier manages his debut collection with precision, grace and stunning metaphor.

Michel Pleau, Quebec City, La lenteur du monde.
(Les Éditions David)
In La lenteur du monde, Michel Pleau uses simple, moving images that go straight to the heart. He shapes words like a sculptor carves, with painstaking care, to give us moments of pure beauty and flashes of luminous landscape. He evokes the nostalgia of childhood in language as refreshing and bracing as the wind.

Drama

Catherine Banks, Halifax, Bone Cage.
(Playwrights Canada Press)
With her expert command of dramatic metaphor, Catherine Banks shows us the life-blood of rural Canada flowing through the conflicted, bone-caged human heart. What is the cost to the human spirit, she asks, when good people are forced by circumstance to kill the thing they love – in this case, the Canadian wilderness? The playwright finds that which is most noble in unexpected places, the heroic in what appears to be the simplest of lives.

Jennifer Tremblay, Sorel, Quebec, La liste.
(Les Éditions de la Bagnole)
Absolutely inspired. The author proposes a simple, syncopated tale of everyday to-do lists in which the essential and the ordinary are inextricably entwined. Jennifer Tremblay achieves the universal with economy and lucidity.

Non-fiction

Christie Blatchford, Toronto, Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army. (Doubleday Canada)
Christie Blatchford’s Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army is a dramatic and vivid chronicle that proves reportage and the language of common speech can rise to the challenge of literature. Blatchford’s writing allows the soldiers and their families to speak to us in their own voices, without adornment.

Pierre Ouellet, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec,
Hors-temps: poétique de la posthistoire. (VLB éditeur)
Pierre Ouellet does an exceptional job of combining the inspiration of poetry with the rigours of philosophy. He positions himself at the dawn of post-history and, through the power of language, reveals a dazzling vision of the future. He blends the political, dreams and intimacy into a critical reflection of immense lucidity.

Children’s Literature – Text

John Ibbitson, Washington (D.C.), formerly of Ottawa and Toronto, The Landing.
(Kids Can Press)
A superbly crafted story, The Landing takes us to the Ontario Muskoka region of the 1930s. As an interpretation of a place and time and a young man’s coming-of-age, it never falters. It is a novel as timeless as the music and the adolescent imagination that lie at its centre.

Sylvie Desrosiers, Longueuil, Quebec, Les trois lieues.
(Les éditions de la courte échelle)
Sylvie Desrosiers has written a profoundly moving story about the difficult relationship between a father and son. The book takes us on an extraordinary adventure in the far North, a place where magic is closely connected to reality. A gentle reflection on courage, forgiveness, life, love and death.

Children’s Literature – Illustration

Stéphane Jorisch, Montreal, The Owl and the Pussycat, text by Edward Lear. (Kids Can Press)
Light, poetic, playful, imaginative, bizarre and ingenious illustrations match the text superbly. Stéphane Jorisch’s art brings new colour and depth to this well-known poem. Sit down in an armchair with this book and let it transport you into its magical world.

Janice Nadeau, Montreal, Ma meilleure amie, text by Gilles Tibo.
(Québec Amérique)
Janice Nadeau uses a quiet, sober approach to illustrate the delicate subject of death. Her brushstroke evokes ashes and dust, and the restrained use of colour imbues Ma meilleure amie with an emotional charge that goes straight to the heart.

Translation

Lazer Lederhendler, Montreal, Nikolski. (Knopf Canada)
English translation of Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner (Éditions Alto)
One senses the affinity between the translator and his writer in this English-language version of Nikolski, a delightfully light-hearted,
deeply-rooted story. The wonderful magic in the original is also present in the translation. Lederhendler is clearly a translator with imagination and a terrific sense of language. His work remains wickedly faithful to the original.

Claire Chabalier, Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Quebec, and
Louise Chabalier, Mascouche, Quebec, Tracey en mille morceaux
(Les éditions Les Allusifs)
French translation of The Tracey Fragments by Maureen Medved (House of Anansi Press)
This extraordinary feat of fragmentation, already a tour-de-force in English, ran the risk in translation of appearing juxtaposed, assembled artificially in an attempt to reproduce the original welter of words. But the fluidity is natural, and the tension is constant and palpable. The translation avoids any vulgarity or obscenity – a work utterly lacking in complacency or concession.

Popularity: 34% [?]