Governor General Literary Finalists Announced

Esi Edugyan and Patrick DeWitt are already in contention for the three major Canadian literary prizes. Both are on the Rogers Writers' Trust and Giller Prize shortlists and are Man Booker prize finalists in the UK.

This morning the Canada Council for the Arts announced the finalists for the 2011 Governor General’s Literary Awards. The English-language finalists for fiction are: David Bezmozgis for The Free World, Patrick deWitt for The Sisters Brothers, Esi Edugyan for Half-Blood Blues, Marina Endicott for The Little Shadows and Alexi Zentner for Touch.

The announcement means that DeWitt and Edugyan are in contention for the three major Canadian literary prizes, having already been named to the Rogers Writers’ Trust and Giller Prize shortlists. Both are also finalists for the Man Booker Prize in the UK.

The winner of the GG will receive $25,000 and a specially-bound copy of the winning book. Each non-winning finalists receives $1,000.

The winner will be announced Nov. 15 at 10 a.m. and David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, will present the awards during a ceremony at Rideau Hall on Nov. 24.

– Athena McKenzie