Each winner of the 1984 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.
English
{|class="wikitable" width="100%"
!width=15%|Category
!width=30%|Winner
!width=55%|Nominated
|-
| align="center"| Fiction
| Josef Skvorecky, The Engineer of Human Souls
|
- Timothy Findley, Not Wanted on the Voyage
- Susan Kerslake, The Book of Fears
- Audrey Thomas, Intertidal Life
|-
| align="center"| Non-fiction
| Sandra Gwyn, The Private Capital: Ambition and Love in the Age of Macdonald and Laurier
|
- Bob Beal and Rod Macleod, Prairie Fire: The 1885 North-West Rebellion
- Graham Fraser, P.Q.: René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois in Power
|-
| align="center"| Poetry
| Paulette Jiles, Celestial Navigation
|
- Roo Borson, The Whole Night, Coming Home
- Marilyn Bowering, The Sunday before Winter
- David McFadden, The Art of Darkness
- Sharon Thesen, Confabulations
- Peter van Toorn, Mountain Tea
|-
| align="center"| Drama
| Judith Thompson, White Biting Dog
|
- James Reaney, The Canadian Brothers or The Prophecy Fulfilled
- George Ryga, A Letter to My Son
|}
French
{|class="wikitable" width="100%"
!width=15%|Category
!width=30%|Winner
!width=55%|Nominated
|-
| align="center"| Fiction
| Jacques Brault, Agonie
|
- Madeleine Ouellette-Michalska, La Maison Trestler
- Jacques Poulin, Volkswagen Blues
- Jacques Savoie, Les Portes tournantes
- Marie José Thériault, Les Demoiselles de Numidie
|-
| align="center"| Non-fiction
| Jean Hamelin and Nicole Gagnon, Le XXe Siècle: Histoire du catholicisme québécois
|
- Luc Bureau, Entre l'Éden et l'Utopie
- Philippe Haeck, La Table d'écriture: poéthique et modernité
|-
| align="center"| Poetry
| Nicole Brossard, Double Impression
|
- Michel Beaulieu, Kaléidoscope
- André Roy, Les sept jours de la jouissance
- Élise Turcotte, Navires de guerre
|-
| align="center"| Drama
| René-Daniel Dubois, Ne blâmez jamais les Bédouins
|
- Gilbert Dupuis, Les Transporteurs de monde
- Marcel Sabourin, Pleurer pour rire
- Michel Tremblay, Albertine, en cinq temps
|}