The 2003 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were announced on November 12. Each winner received a cheque for $15,000.

Table of contents
1 English-language finalists
2 French language finalists
3 Other Governor General's Awards:

English-language finalists

Fiction

Winner:

  • Douglas Glover - Elle

Other Finalists:
  • Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake
  • Elizabeth Hay - Garbo Laughs
  • Jean McNeil - Private View
  • Edeet Ravel - Ten Thousand Lovers

Poetry

Winner:

  • Tim Lilburn - Kill-site

Other Finalists:
  • Tim Bowling, The Witness Ghost
  • Evan Jones, Nothing Fell Today But Rain
  • Anne Simpson, Loop
  • Tom Wayman, My Father’s Cup

Drama

Winner:

  • Vern Thiessen - Einstein’s Gift

Other Finalists:
  • Marie Clements, Burning Vision
  • Brian Drader, Prok
  • Sunil Kuruvilla, Rice Boy
  • Michael Lewis MacLennan, Last Romantics

Nonfiction

Winner:

Other Finalists:
  • Andrew Clark, A Keen Soldier: The Execution of Second World War Private Harold Pringle
  • Andrew Cohen, While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World
  • Maggie de Vries, Vancouver, for Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister
  • Ross King, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling

Children's Literature - Text

Winner:

  • Glen Huser, Stitches

Other Finalists:

Children's Literature - Illustration

Winner:

  • Allen Sapp, The Song Within My Heart

Other Finalists:
  • Nicolas Debon, Four Pictures by Emily Carr
  • Rob Gonsalves, Imagine a Night
  • Barbara Reid, The Subway Mouse
  • Ludmila Zeman, Sindbad’s Secret: From the Tales of the Thousand and One Nights

Translation (French to English)

Winner:

  • Jane Brierley - Memoirs of a Less Travelled Road: A Historian’s Life

Other Finalists:
  • Patricia Claxton, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali
  • Jo-Anne Elder, Tales from Dog Island: St. Pierre et Miquelon
  • David Homel and Fred A. Reed, The Heart Is an Involuntary Muscle
  • Susan Ouriou, Necessary Betrayals

French language finalists

Fiction

Winner:

Other Finalists:
  • Jean-François Chassay, L’Angle mort
  • Marie Gagnier, Console-moi
  • Gaétan Soucy, Music-Hall!
  • Larry Tremblay, Le Mangeur de bicyclette

Poetry

Winner:

  • Pierre Nepveu - Lignes aériennes

Other Finalists:
  • Nicole Brossard, Cahier de roses & de civilisation
  • Carle Coppens, Le grand livre des entorses
  • Benoit Jutras, Nous serons sans voix
  • Louis-Jean Thibault, Géographie des lointains

Drama:

Winner:

  • Jean-Rock Gaudreault - Deux pas vers les étoiles

Other Finalists:
  • François Archambault, La société des loisirs
  • François Létourneau, Cheech
  • Wajdi Mouawad, Incendies
  • Jean-Pierre Ronfard, Écriture pour le théâtre, tome III

Non-Fiction

Winner:

  • Thierry Hentsch- Raconter et mourir : aux sources narratives de l’imaginaire occidental

Other Finalists:
  • Michel Morin, Vertige! et autres essais a-politiques
  • Louise Prescott, Le complexe d’Ulysse : signifiance et micropolitique dans la pratique de l’art
  • François Ricard, Le dernier après-midi d’Agnès: essai sur l’oeuvre de Milan Kundera
  • Régine Robin, La mémoire saturée

Children's Literature - Text

Winner:

  • Danielle Simard, J’ai vendu ma soeur

Other Finalists:
  • Mélissa Anctil, Gigi
  • Roger Des Roches, Marie Quatdoigts
  • Laurent Grimon, Le chevalier des Arbres
  • Paul Chanel Malenfant, Si tu allais quelque part

Children's Literature - Illustration

Winner:

  • Virginie Egger, Recette d’éléphant à la sauce vieux pneu

Other Finalists:
  • Geneviève Côté, Le Premier Printemps du monde
  • Gérard Dubois, Le piano muet
  • Stéphane Jorisch, Thésée et le Minotaure
  • Stéphane Poulin, Annabel et la Bête

Translation - English to French

Winner:

  • Agnès Guitard - Un amour de Salomé

Other Finalists:
  • Yolande Amzallag, Le canari éthique: science, société et esprit humain
  • Paule Noyart, L’Or bleu: l’eau, nouvel enjeu stratégique et commercial
  • Hélène Paré, L’histoire spectacle: le cas du tricentenaire de Québec
  • Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné, L’analyste

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