Each winner of the 1987 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit received $5000 and a medal from the Governor General of Canada. The winners and nominees were selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.
The Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit nominally increased in number from 8 in 1986 to 14 in 1987, with the addition of four awards for children's book writing and illustration and two awards for translation.
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