The Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a non-fiction book written in English. Since 1987 however, this was discontinued after the 1958 awards, and then returned to a single non-fiction category.
The winners alone were announced until 1979, when Canada Council released in advance a shortlist of three nominees. Since then, the advance shortlist has numbered three to five.<!--from 1988, always 4 or 5; source is eyeball scan of our list -->
Winners and nominees
1930s
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" width="100%"
|+Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 1936-1939
! Year
!width="40%"|Author
!width="50%"|Title
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! 1936
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86"| TBR: Newspaper Pieces
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! 1937
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86"| My Discovery of the West
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! 1938
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Canadian Mosaic
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! 1939
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Confessions of an Immigrant's Daughter
|}
1940s
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" width="100%"
|+Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 1940-1949
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| Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books
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| Written in the Flesh: A History of Desire
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! rowspan="5"| 2006
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86" | '
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| and Robert Renaud
| Starlight Tour: The Last, Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild
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! rowspan="5"| 2007
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86"| I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad
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| and Christian Pearce
| Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent
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| Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume One: 1919-1968
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| 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa
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| Silence of the Songbirds: How We Are Losing the World's Songbirds and What We Can Do to Save Them
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! rowspan="5"| 2008
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army
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| God’s Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal and the Dream of Discovery
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! rowspan="5"| 2009
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86" | '
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| Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-45
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| Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds
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| American Raj: Liberation or Domination? (Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World)
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2010s
{| class="wikitable" width=100%
|+Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 2010-2019
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| Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest
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| What We Talk About When We Talk About War
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! rowspan="5"| 2013
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page
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| Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother
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! rowspan="4"| 2014
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86" | '
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| and Alexandra Shimo
| Up Ghost River: A Chief’s Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History
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| Know the Night: A Memoir of Survival in the Small Hours
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! rowspan="5"| 2015
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive
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|| Dispatches from the Front: Matthew Halton, Canada's Voice at War
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|| Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada's Radical Makeover
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|| Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing into Thunderbird
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! rowspan="5"| 2016
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86" | '
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|| Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (To Everyone)
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|| In-Between Days: A Memoir about Living with Cancer
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|| Firewater: How Alcohol is Killing My People (and Yours)
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|| Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World
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! rowspan="5"| 2017
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86" | '
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|| Where I Live Now: A Journey through Love and Loss to Healing and Hope
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|| Where It Hurts
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|| All We Leave Behind: A Reporter's Journey into the Lives of Others
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! rowspan="5"| 2018
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age
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|| Dead Reckoning: How I Came To Meet the Man Who Murdered My Father
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|| Heart Berries
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|| and Winnie Yeung
|| Homes: A Refugee Story
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! rowspan="5"| 2019
| style="background:#FAEB86"|
| style="background:#FAEB86"| To the River: Losing My Brother
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|| Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father
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|| Tiny Lights for Travellers
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|| Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times
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|| City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands
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2020s
{| class="wikitable" width=100%
|+Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction winners, 2020-2029
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|'
| rowspan="4"|
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|Rebent Sinner
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|Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space
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|Shame on Me
|- style="background:#FAEB86"
! rowspan="5"|2021
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|alfabet/alphabet: a memoir of a first language
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|What I Remember, What I Know: The Life of a High Arctic Exile
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|Revery: A Year of Bees
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|Care of: Letters, Connections, and Cures
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! rowspan="5"|2022
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|Aki-wayn-zih: A Person as Worthy as the Earth
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|All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler
| rowspan="4"|
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| and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
|Rehearsals for Living
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|Persephoneʼs Children: A Life in Fragments
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|Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis
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! rowspan="5"| 2023
|style="background:#FAEB86" |
|style="background:#FAEB86" | Unearthing
|style="background:#FAEB86" |
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| Message in a Bottle
| rowspan=4 |
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| Gendered Islamophobia: My Journey with a Scar(f)
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| Invisible Boy
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| Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls
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! rowspan="5"| 2024
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Niigaan Sinclair
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre
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| Helen Knott
| Becoming a Matriarch
| rowspan=4|
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| Petra Molnar
| The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
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| Danny Ramadan
| Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir
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| Astra Taylor
| The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart
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! rowspan="5"| 2025
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Claire Cameron
| style="background:#FAEB86" | How to Survive a Bear Attack
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| Shane Neilson
| What to Feel, How to Feel: Lyric Essays on Neurodivergence and Neurofatherhood
| rowspan=4|
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| Vinh Nguyen
| The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse
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| Ruby Smith Dίaz
| Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim “Joe” Fortes
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| Teresa Wong
| All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey
|}
References
</references>
External links
- Governor General award winners at Faded Page