Each winner of the 1991 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit received $10,000 and a medal from the Governor General of Canada. The winners were 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
| Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey
|
- Margaret Atwood, Wilderness Tips
- Don Dickinson, Blue Husbands
- Douglas Glover, A Guide to Animal Behaviour
- Terry Griggs, Quickening
|-
| align="center"| Non-fiction
| Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo, Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past
|
- Northrop Frye, Words With Power
- Kristjana Gunnars, Zero Hour
- D. L. MacDonald, Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography of the Author of "The Vampyre"
- Rosemary Sullivan, By Heart: Elizabeth Smart, A Life
|-
| align="center"| Poetry
| Don McKay, Night Field
|
- Don Domanski, Wolf-Ladder
- Judith Fitzgerald, Rapturous Chronicles
- Patrick Lane, Mortal Remains
- Anne Michaels, Miner's Pond
|-
| align="center"| Drama
| Joan MacLeod, Amigo's Blue Guitar
|
- Sally Clark, The Trial of Judith K.
- Don Druick, Where is Kabuki?
- Linda Griffiths, The Darling Family
- Daniel David Moses, Coyote City
|-
| align="center"| Children's literature
| Sarah Ellis, Pick-Up Sticks
|
- Martha Brooks, Two Moons in August
- Roch Carrier, A Happy New Year's Day
- Jean Little, Stars Come Out Within
- Monty Reid, The Last Great Dinosaurs
|-
| align="center"| Children's illustration
| Joanne Fitzgerald, Doctor Kiss Says Yes
|
- Kady MacDonald Denton, The Travelling Musicians
- Michèle Lemieux, Peter and the Wolf
- Gilles Pelletier, A Happy New Year's Day
- Jacqueline White, Coyote Winter
|-
| align="center"| French to English translation
| Albert W. Halsall, A Dictionary of Literary Devices: Gradus, A-Z (Bernard Dupriez, Gradus : Les procédés littéraires)
|
- Linda Gaboriau, Lilies, or the Revival of a Romantic Drama (Michel Marc Bouchard, Les feluettes)
- Peter Keating, Physics and the Rise of Scientific Research in Canada (Yves Gingras, Les origines de la recherche scientifique au Canada : le cas des physiciens)
- Patricia Smart and Dorothy Howard, The Diary of André Laurendeau (André Laurendeau, Journal tenu pendant la Commission royale d’enquête sur le bilinguisme et le biculturalisme)
|}
French
{|class="wikitable" width="100%"
!width=15%|Category
!width=30%|Winner
!width=55%|Nominated
|-
| align="center"| Fiction
| André Brochu, La croix du Nord
|
- Flora Balzano, Soigne ta chute
- Georges-Hébert Germain, Christophe Colomb: Naufrage sur les côtes du paradis
- Hans-Jürgen Greif, L'Autre Pandore
- Hélène Rioux, Les Miroirs d'Éléonore
|-
| align="center"| Non-fiction
| Bernard Arcand, Le Jaguar et le Tamanoir
|
- Betty Bednarski, Autour de Ferron : littérature, traduction, altérité
- Guy Bourgeault, L'Éthique et le droit : face aux nouvelles technologies biomédicales
- Jacques Jaffelin, Le Promeneur d'Einstein
- Robert Major, Jean Rivard ou l'art de réussir: idéologies et utopie dans l'oeuvre d'Antoine Gérin-Lajoie
|-
| align="center"| Poetry
| Madeleine Gagnon, Chant pour un Québec lointain
|
- Claude Beausoleil, Une certaine fin de siècle
- François Charron, L'Intraduisible amour
- Herménégilde Chiasson, Vous
- Rachel Leclerc Les vies frontalières
|-
| align="center"| Drama
| Gilbert Dupuis, Mon oncle Marcel qui vague vague près du métro Berri
|
- Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, La maison cassée
- Michel Marc Bouchard, L'Histoire de l'oie
- Dominic Champagne, La répétition
- Suzanne Lebeau, Conte du jour et de la nuit
|-
| align="center"| Children's literature
| François Gravel, Deux heures et demie avant Jasmine
|
- Ginette Anfousse, Un terrible secret
- Johanne Mercier, L'Été des autres
- Daniel Sernine, Quatre destins
|-
| align="center"| Children's illustration
| Sheldon Cohen, Un champion
|
- Stéphane Poulin, Un voyage pour deux : contes et mensonges de mon enfance
|-
| align="center"| English to French translation
| Jean-Paul Sainte-Marie and Brigitte Chabert Hacikyan, Les Enfants d'Aataentsic: l'histoire du peuple huron (Bruce Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660)
|
- Jean Antonin Billard and Christine Le Boeuf, Orages électriques (David Homel, Electrical Storms)
- Brigitte Chabert Hacikyan, Le Canada au temps des aventuriers (Robert McGhee, Canada Rediscovered)
- Michèle Marineau, Sur le rivage (Lucy Maud Montgomery, Along the Shore)
- Colette Tonge, Un heureux canular (Robertson Davies, Leaven of Malice)
|}