This is a list of recipients and nominees of the Governor General's Awards award for English-language poetry. The award was created in 1981 when the Governor General's Award for English language poetry or drama was divided.
Winners and nominees
1980s
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!width="40%"|Author
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!Ref.
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| rowspan="3"| 1981
| style="background:#FAEB86"| F. R. Scott
| style="background:#FAEB86"| The Collected Poems of F. R. Scott
| rowspan=3|
|-
| Alfred Bailey
| Miramichi Lightning: Collected Poems
|-
| Barry McKinnon
| The The
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1982
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Phyllis Webb
| style="background:#FAEB86"| The Vision Tree: Selected Poems
|
|-
| Robert Bringhurst
| The Beauty of the Weapons: Selected Poems 1972-1982
| rowspan=3|
|-
| Barry Dempster
| Fables for Isolated Men
|-
| Diane Keating
| No Birds or Flowers
|-
| rowspan="4"| 1983
| style="background:#FAEB86"| David Donnell
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Settlements
|
|-
| Christopher Dewdney
| Predators of the Adoration: Selected Poems 1972-82
| rowspan=3|
|-
| Don McKay
| Birding, or Desire
|-
| Anne Szumigalski
| Doctrine of Signatures
|-
| rowspan="6"| 1984
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Paulette Jiles
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Celestial Navigation
|
|-
| Roo Borson
| The Whole Night, Coming Home
| rowspan=5|
|-
| Marilyn Bowering
| The Sunday Before Winter
|-
| David McFadden
| The Art of Darkness
|-
| Sharon Thesen
| Confabulations
|-
| Peter van Toorn
| Mountain Tea
|-
| rowspan="4"| 1985
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Fred Wah
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Waiting for Saskatchewan
|
|-
| Lorna Crozier
| The Garden Going on Without Us
| rowspan=3|
|-
| Richard Lush
| A Manual for Lying Down
|-
| Anne Szumigalski
| Instar
|-
| rowspan="3"| 1986
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Al Purdy
| style="background:#FAEB86"| The Collected Poems of Al Purdy
|
|-
| Christopher Dewdney
| The Immaculate Perception
| rowspan=2|
|-
| John Newlove
| The Night the Dog Smiled
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1987
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Gwendolyn MacEwen
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Afterworlds
|
|-
| Di Brandt
| Questions I Asked My Mother
| rowspan=3|
|-
| Roy Kiyooka
| Pear Tree Pomes
|-
| Sharon Thesen
| The Beginning of the Long Dash
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1988
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Erín Moure
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Furious
|
|-
| Lorna Crozier
| Angels of Flesh, Angels of Silence
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Christopher Dewdney
| Radiant Inventory
|-
| David McFadden
| Gypsy Guitar
|-
| Peter Dale Scott
| Coming to Jakarta
|-
| rowspan="3"| 1989
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Heather Spears
| style="background:#FAEB86"| The Word for Sand
|
|-
| Tim Lilburn
| Tourist to Ecstasy
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Stephen Scobie
| Dunino
|}
1990s
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!Ref.
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| rowspan="3"| 1990
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Margaret Avison
| style="background:#FAEB86"| No Time
|
|-
| Dionne Brand
| No Language Is Neutral
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Patrick Lane
| Winter
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1991
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Don McKay
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Night Field
|
|-
| Don Domanski
| Wolf-Ladder
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Judith Fitzgerald
| Rapturous Chronicles
|-
| Patrick Lane
| Mortal Remains
|-
| Anne Michaels
| Miner's Pond
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1992
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Lorna Crozier
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Inventing the Hawk
|
|-
| Evelyn Lau
| Oedipal Dreams
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Laura Lush
| Hometown
|-
| Steve McCaffery
| Theory of Sediment
|-
| Kathleen McCracken
| Blue Light, Bay and College
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1993
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Don Coles
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Forests of the Medieval World
|
|-
| Claire Harris
| Drawing Down a Daughter
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Monty Reid
| Crawlspace: New and Selected Poems
|-
| Douglas Burnet Smith
| Voices from a Farther Room
|-
| Patricia Young
| More Watery Still
|-
| rowspan="4"| 1994
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Robert Hilles
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Cantos from a Small Room
|
|-
| Robin Blaser
| The Holy Forest
| rowspan=3|
|-
| Polly Fleck
| The Chinese Execution
|-
| Monty Reid
| Dog Sleeps
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1995
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Anne Szumigalski
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Voice
|
|-
| Roo Borson
| Night Walk
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Di Brandt
| Jerusalem, Beloved
|-
| Don Domanski
| Stations of the Left Hand
|-
| Steven Heighton
| The Ecstasy of Skeptics
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1996
| style="background:#FAEB86"| E. D. Blodgett
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Apostrophes: Woman at a Piano
|
|-
| Elizabeth Brewster
| Footnotes to the Book of Job
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Crispin Elsted
| Climate and the Affections
|-
| Charles Lillard
| Shadow Weather
|-
| Erín Moure
| Search Procedures
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1997
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Dionne Brand
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Land to Light On
|
|-
| Marilyn Bowering
| Autobiography
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Patrick Friesen
| A Broken Bowl
|-
| Carole Glasser Langille
| In Cannon Cave
|-
| Don McKay
| Apparatus
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1998
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Stephanie Bolster
| style="background:#FAEB86"| White Stone: The Alice Poems
|
|-
| Louise Bernice Halfe
| Blue Marrow
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Michael Ondaatje
| Handwriting
|-
| Lisa Robertson
| Debbie: An Epic
|-
| Kathy Shaidle
| Lobotomy Magnificat
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1999
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Jan Zwicky
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Songs for Relinquishing the Earth
|
|-
| Lynn Davies
| The Bridge that Carries the Road
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Susan Goyette
| The True Names of Birds
|-
| Richard Harrison
| Big Breath of a Wish
|-
| Terence Young
| The Island in Winter
|}
2000s
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!Year
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!Ref.
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| rowspan="5"| 2000
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Don McKay
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Another Gravity
|
|-
| George Bowering
| His Life
| rowspan=4|
|-
| A. F. Moritz
| Rest on the Flight into Egypt
|-
| John Pass
| Water Stair
|-
| Patricia Young
| Ruin and Beauty
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2001
| style="background:#FAEB86"| George Elliott Clarke
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Execution Poems
|
|-
| Anne Carson
| Men in the Off Hours
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Phil Hall
| Trouble Sleeping
|-
| Robert Kroetsch
| The Hornbooks of Rita K.
|-
| Steve McCaffery
| Seven Pages Missing
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2002
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Roy Miki
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Surrender
|
|-
| Tammy Armstrong
| Bogman's Music
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Colin Browne
| Ground Water
|-
| Kathy Mac
| Nail Builders Plan for Strength and Growth
|-
| Erín Moure
| O Cidadán
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2003
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Tim Lilburn
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Kill-site
|
|-
| Tim Bowling
| The Witness Ghost
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Evan Jones
| Nothing Fell Today But Rain
|-
| Anne Simpson
| Loop
|-
| Tom Wayman
| My Father's Cup
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2004
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Roo Borson
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida
|
|-
| Tim Bowling
| The Memory Orchard
| rowspan=4|
|-
| David Manicom
| The Burning Eaves
|-
| John Terpstra
| Disarmament
|-
| Jan Zwicky
| Robinson's Crossing
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2005
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Anne Compton
| style="background:#FAEB86"| processional
|
|-
| Barry Dempster
| The Burning Alphabet
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Erín Moure
| Little Theatres
|-
| W. H. New
| Underwood Log
|-
| Olive Senior
| Over the Roofs of the World
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2006
| style="background:#FAEB86"| John Pass
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Stumbling in the Bloom
|
|-
| Ken Babstock
| Airstream Land Yacht
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Elizabeth Bachinsky
| Home of Sudden Service
|-
| Dionne Brand
| Inventory
|-
| Sharon Thesen
| The Good Bacteria
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2007
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Don Domanski
| style="background:#FAEB86"| All Our Wonder Unavenged
|
|-
| Margaret Atwood
| The Door
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Brian Henderson
| Nerve Language
|-
| Dennis Lee
| Yesno
|-
| Rob Winger
| Muybridge's Horse
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2008
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Jacob Scheier
| style="background:#FAEB86"| More to Keep Us Warm
|
|-
| Weyman Chan
| Noise from the Laundry
| rowspan=4|
|-
| A. F. Moritz
| The Sentinel
|-
| Sachiko Murakami
| The Invisibility Exhibit
|-
| Ruth Roach Pierson
| Aide-Mémoire
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2009
| style="background:#FAEB86"| David Zieroth
| style="background:#FAEB86"| The Fly in Autumn
|
|-
| David McFadden
| Be Calm, Honey
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Philip Kevin Paul
| Little Hunger
|-
| Sina Queyras
| Expressway
|-
| Carmine Starnino
| This Way Out
|}
2010s
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!Year
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!Ref.
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| rowspan="5"| 2010
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Richard Greene
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Boxing the Compass
|
|-
| Michael Harris
| Circus
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Daryl Hine
| &: A Serial Poem
|-
| Sandy Pool
| Exploding into Night
|-
| Melanie Siebert
| Deepwater Vee
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2011
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Phil Hall
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Killdeer
|
|-
| Michael Boughn
| Cosmographia: A Post-Lucretian Faux Micro-Epic
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Kate Eichhorn
| Fieldnotes, A Forensic
|-
| Garry Thomas Morse
| Discovery Passages
|-
| Susan Musgrave
| Origami Dove
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2012
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Julie Bruck
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Monkey Ranch
|
|-
| David McGimpsey
| Li'l Bastard
| rowspan=4|
|-
| A. F. Moritz
| The New Measures
|-
| Lisa Pasold
| Any Bright Horse
|-
| James Pollock
| Sailing to Babylon
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2013
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Katherena Vermette
| style="background:#FAEB86"| North End Love Songs
|
|-
| Austin Clarke
| Where the Sun Shines Best
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Adam Dickinson
| The Polymers
|-
| Don Domanski
| Bite Down Little Whisper
|-
| Russell Thornton
| Birds, Metal, Stones & Rain
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2014
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Arleen Paré
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Lake of Two Mountains
|
|-
| Julie Joosten
| Light Light
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Christopher Levenson
| Night Vision
|-
| Garth Martens
| Prologue for the Age of Consequence
|-
| Sadiqa de Meijer
| Leaving Howe Island
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2015
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Robyn Sarah
| style="background:#FAEB86"| My Shoes Are Killing Me
|
|-
| Kayla Czaga
| For Your Safety Please Hold On
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Liz Howard
| Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent
|-
| M. Travis Lane
| Crossover
|-
| Patrick Lane
| Washita
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2016
| style="background:#FAEB86"| Steven Heighton
| style="background:#FAEB86"| The Waking Comes Late
|
|-
| Joe Denham
| Regeneration Machine
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Susan Holbrook
| Throaty Wipes
|-
| Garry Thomas Morse
| Prairie Harbour
|-
| Rachel Rose
| Marry & Burn
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2017
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Richard Harrison
| style="background:#FAEB86" | On Not Losing My Father's Ashes in the Flood
|
|-
| Lorna Crozier
| What the Soul Doesn't Want
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Nora Gould
| Selah
|-
| Benjamin Hertwig
| Slow War
|-
| Julia McCarthy
| All the Names Between
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2018
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Cecily Nicholson
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Wayside Sang
|
|-
| Billy-Ray Belcourt
| This Wound Is a World
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Dionne Brand
| The Blue Clerk
|-
| Joshua Mensch
| Because: A Lyric Memoir
|-
| Jason Stefanik
| Night Became Years
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2019
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Gwen Benaway
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Holy Wild
|
|-
| Julie Bruck
| How to Avoid Huge Ships
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Karen Houle
| The Grand River Watershed: A Folk Ecology
|-
| Catherine Hunter
| St. Boniface Elegies
|-
| Armand Garnet Ruffo
| Treaty #
|}
2020s
{|class="wikitable" width="100%"
!Year
!width="40%"|Author
!width="50%"|Title
!Ref
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2020
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Anne Carson
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Norma Jeane Baker of Troy
|
|-
| Oana Avasilichioaei
| Eight Track
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Donna Kane
| Orrery
|-
| Canisia Lubrin
| The Dyzgraphxst
|-
| Sachiko Murakami
| Render
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2021
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Tolu Oloruntoba
| style="background:#FAEB86" | The Junta of Happenstance
|
|-
| Roxanna Bennett
| The Untranslatable I
| rowspan=4 |
|-
| Stephen Collis
| A History of the Theories of Rain
|-
| Hoa Nguyen
| A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure
|-
| Rebecca Salazar
| Sulphurtongue
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2022
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Annick MacAskill
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Shadow Blight
|
|-
| D. M. Bradford
| Dream of No One But Myself
| rowspan=4 |
|-
| Anne Carson
| H of H Playbook
|-
| Aaron Kreuter
| Shifting Baseline Syndrome
|-
| Avery Lake
| Horrible Dance
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2023
|style="background:#FAEB86" | Hannah Green
|style="background:#FAEB86" | Xanax Cowboy
|style="background:#FAEB86" |
|-
| Robert Bringhurst
| The Ridge
| rowspan=4 |
|-
| Conor Kerr
| Old Gods
|-
| Amy Ching-Yan Lam
| Baby Book
|-
| Susan Musgrave
| Exculpatory Lilies
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2024
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Chimwemwe Undi
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Scientific Marvel
|
|-
| Brandi Bird
| The All + Flesh
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Bradley Peters
| Sonnets from a Cell
|-
| Bren Simmers
| The Work
|-
| Barbara Tran
| Precedented Parroting
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2025
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Karen Solie
| style="background:#FAEB86" | Wellwater
|
|-
| Farah Ghafooor
| Shadow Price
| rowspan=4|
|-
| Lorna Goodison
| Dante’s Inferno: A new translation
|-
| Michael Trussler
| 10:10
|-
| Douglas Walbourne-Gough
| Island
|}