Each winner of the 1991 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit received $10 000 dollars 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.

Table of contents
1 English Language
2 French Language
3 Other Governor General's Awards:

English Language

Fiction

Winner:

Other Finalists:
  • Margaret Atwood, Wilderness Tips
  • Don Dickinson, Blue Husbands
  • Douglas Glover, A Guide to Animal Behaviour
  • Terry Griggs, Quickening

Poetry

Winner:

Other Finalists:

Drama

Winner:

  • Joan MacLeod, Amigo's Blue Guitar

Other Finalists:

Non-Fiction

Winner:

  • Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo, Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past

Other Finalists:
  • 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

Children's Literature - Text

Winner:

  • Sarah Ellis, Pick-Up Sticks

Other Finalists:

Children's Literature - Illustration

Winner:

  • Joanne Fitzgerald, Doctor Kiss Says Yes

Other Finalists:
  • Kady MacDonald Denton, The Travelling Musicians
  • Michèle Lemieux, Peter and the Wolf
  • Gilles Pelletier, A Happy New Year's Day
  • Jacquelinne White, Coyote Winter

Translation (from French to English)

Winner:

  • Albert W. Halsall, A Dictionary of Literary Devices: Gradus, A-Z

Other Finalists:
  • Linda Gaboriau, Lilies or the Revival of a Romantic Drama
  • Peter Keating, Physics and the Rise of Scientific Research in Canada
  • Patricia Smart and Dorothy Howard, The Diary of André Laurendeau

French Language

Fiction

Winner:

Other Finalists:
  • 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

Poetry

Winner:

  • Madeleine Gagnon, Chant pour un Québec lointain

Other Finalists:
  • Claude Beausoleil, Une certaine fin de siècle
  • François Charron, L'Intraduisible amour
  • Herménégilde Chiasson, Vous
  • Rachel Leclerc Les vies frontalières

Drama

Winner:

  • Gilbert Dupuis, Mon oncle Marcel qui vague vague près du métro Berri

Other Finalists:

Non-Fiction

Winner:

  • Bernard Arcand, Le Jaguar et le Tamanoir

Other Finalists:
  • 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

Children's Literature - Text

Winner:

  • François Gravel, Deux heures et demie avant Jasmine

Other Finalists:
  • Ginette Anfousse, Un terrible secret
  • Johanne Mercier, L'Été des autres
  • Daniel Sernine, Quatre destins

Children's Literature - Illustration

Winner:

  • Sheldon Cohen, Un champion

Other Finalist:
  • Stéphane Poulin, Un voyage pour deux : contes et mensonges de mon enfance

Translation (from English to French)

Winner:

  • Jean-Paul Sainte-Marie and Brigitte Chabert Hacikyan, Les Enfants d'Aataentsic: l'histoire du peuple huron

Other Finalists:
  • Jean-Antonin Billard and Christine Le Boeuf, Orages électriques
  • Brigitte Chabert Hacikyan, Le Canada au temps des aventuriers
  • Michèle Marineau, Sur le rivage
  • Colette Tonge, Un heureux canular

Other Governor General's Awards:

2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996 - 1995 - 1994 - 1993 - 1992 - 1991 - 1990 - 1989 - 1988 - 1987 - 1986 - 1985 - 1984 - 1983 - 1982 - 1981 - 1980 - 1979 - 1978 - 1977 - 1976 - 1975 - 1974 - 1973 - 1972 - 1971 - 1970 - 1969 - 1968 - 1967 - 1966 - 1965 - 1964 - 1963 - 1962 - 1961 - 1960 - 1959 - 1958 - 1957 - 1956 - 1955 - 1954 - 1953 - 1952 - 1951 - 1950 - 1949 - 1948 - 1947 - 1946 - 1945 - 1944 - 1943 - 1942 - 1941 - 1940 - 1939 - 1938 - 1937 - 1936