Suzette Mayr and Iain Reid are among the finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Awards

TORONTO – Suzette Mayr, Iain Reid and Susan Musgrave are among the well-known finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Awards.

The Canada Council for the Arts named 70 finalists in seven categories in English and French on Wednesday. The 14 winners, who will each receive $25,000, will be announced on November 8th.

Mayr made the fiction list with “The Sleeping Car Porter,” which won last year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize, while Reid is on the same shortlist with “We Spread.”

Also in the running for the English-language fiction prize are Janika Oza’s novel “A History of Burning,” Anuja Varghese’s short story collection “Chrysalis” and Kai Thomas’ novel “In the Upper Country.”

Musgrave, meanwhile, is a poetry prize finalist for “Exculpatory Lilies,” a collection that was also shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize.

Other finalists for this award include Baby Book by Amy Ching-Yan Lam, Old Gods by Conor Kerr, The Ridge by Robert Bringhurst and Xanax Cowboy by Hannah Green.

Nonfiction finalists include Gendered Islamophobia: My Journey With a Scar(f) by Monia Mazigh, Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery by Harrison Mooney, Message in a Bottle: Ocean Dispatches from a Seabird Biologist ” by Holly Hogan, “Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls” by Angela Sterritt, and “Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets” by Kyo Maclear.

The Governor General’s Literary Awards also recognize plays, texts and illustrations in children’s literature, as well as translations from French into English. There are separate French-language categories for the Francophone script.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2023.