Each winner of the 1990 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit received $10000 and a specially bound edition of his or her book. The winners were selected by a panel of judges administered by the
Canada Council for the Arts
The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal in ...
.
English Language
Fiction
Winner:
*
Nino Ricci
Nino Pio Ricci (born 1959) is a Canadian novelist who lives in Toronto, Ontario.Nino Ricci's ...
, ''
Lives of the Saints
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...
''
Other Finalists:
*
Sky Lee
Sky Lee (born September 15, 1952 as Sharon Lee) is a Canadian artist and novelist. Lee has published both feminist fiction and non-fiction and identifies as lesbian.
Personal life
Lee was born September 15, 1952 in Port Alberni, British Columbia ...
, ''Disappearing Moon Café''
*
Alice Munro
Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move f ...
Diane Schoemperlen
Diane Mavis Schoemperlen (born July 9, 1954) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer.
Early life and education
Schoemperlen was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and educated at Lakehead University.
Career
Schoemperlen's first novel, ''In the ...
, ''Man of My Dreams''
Poetry
Winner:
*
Margaret Avison
Margaret Avison, (April 23, 1918 – July 31, 2007) was a Canadian poet who twice won Canada's Governor General's Award and has also won its Griffin Poetry Prize.Michael Gnarowski,Avison, Margaret" ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (Edmonton: Hurtig ...
, ''No Time''
Other Finalists:
*
Dionne Brand
Dionne Brand (born 7 January 1953) is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. She was Toronto's third Poet Laureate from September 2009 to November 2012. She was admitted to the Order of Canada in 2017
, ''No Language Is Neutral''
* Patrick Lane, ''Winter''
Drama
Winner:
*
Ann-Marie MacDonald
Ann-Marie MacDonald (born October 29, 1958) is a Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host who lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. MacDonald is the daughter of a member of Canada's military; she was born at an air force base near ...
, ''
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
''Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)'' is a 1988 comedic play by Ann-Marie MacDonald in which Constance Ledbelly, a young English literature professor from Queen's University, goes on a subconscious journey of self-discovery.
Constance ...
''
Other Finalists:
* Audrey Butler, ''Black Friday?''
*
John Mighton
John Mighton, OC (born October 2, 1957) is a Canadian mathematician, author, and playwright.
Education and career
Mighton was born in Hamilton, Ontario on and lives in Toronto, Ontario with partner Pamela Sinha and daughter Chloe.
In 1998 M ...
Christina McCall
Christina McCall (29 January 193527 April 2005) was a Canadian political writer.
Biography
Christina McCall was born on 29 January 1935 in Toronto, Ontario, to Orlie Alma (Freeman) and Christopher Warnock McCall. She studied English language an ...
Eugene Forsey
Eugene Alfred Forsey (May 29, 1904 – February 20, 1991) served in the Senate of Canada from 1970 to 1979. He was considered to be one of Canada's foremost constitutional experts.
Biography
Forsey was born on May 29, 1904, in Grand Bank in ...
, ''A Life on the Fringe: The Memoirs of Eugene Forsey''
* Ron Graham, ''God's Dominion: A Sceptic's Quest''
* James King, ''The Last Modern: A Life of Herbert Read''
Children's Literature – Text
Winner:
* Michael Bedard, ''Redwork''
Other Finalists:
*Jan Andrews, ''The Auction''
*Brian Doyle (Canadian writer), Brian Doyle, ''Covered Bridge''
*Welwyn Wilton Katz, ''Whale Singer''
Winner:
*Jane Brierley, ''Yellow-Wolf and Other Tales of the Saint Lawrence''
Other Finalists:
*Patricia Claxton, ''Letters to Bernadette''
*Sheila Fischman, ''Benito''
*Anthony Martin-Sperry, ''Charlevoix: Two Centuries at Murray Bay''
*Susan Usher, ''Community Care and Participatory Research''
French Language
Fiction
Winner:
*Gérald Tougas, ''La Mauvaise foi''
Other Finalists:
*Louis Lefebvre, ''Le Collier d'Hurracan''
*Michèle Mailhot, ''Le Passé composé''
*Jean Marcel, ''Jérôme ou de la traduction''
*France Vézina, ''Osther, le chat criblé d'étoiles''
Poetry
Winner:
*Jean-Paul Daoust, ''Les Cendres bleues''
Other Finalists:
*Geneviève Amyot, ''Corps d'atelier''
*André Brochu, ''Dans les chances de l'air''
*Denise Desautels, ''Leçons de Venise''
*Joël Des Rosiers, ''Tribu''
Drama
Winner:
*Jovette Marchessault, ''Le Voyage magnifique d'Emily Carr''
Other Finalists:
*René-Daniel Dubois, ''Le Troisième fils du professeur Yourolov''
*Anne Hébert, ''L'Île de la Demoiselle''
Non-fiction
Winner:
*Jean-François Lisée, ''Dans l'oeil de l'aigle''
Other Finalists:
*Gérard Bergeron, ''Petit traité de l'État de France
*Martin Blais, ''L'Autre Thomas d'Aquin''
*Daniel Latouche, ''Le Bazar''
*Laurent-Michel Vacher, ''L'Empire du moderne''
Children's Literature – Text
Winner:
*Christiane Duchesne, ''La Vraie histoire du chien de Clara Vic''
Other Finalists:
*José Fréchette, ''L'Automne à 15 ans''
*Philippe Gauthier, ''L'Héritage de Qader''
*Johanne Massé, ''Le Passé en péril''
Children's Literature – Illustration
Winner:
*Pierre Pratt, ''Les Fantaisies de l'oncle Henri''
Other Finalists:
*Mireille Levert, ''Jérémie et Mme Ming'',
*Stéphane Poulin, ''Les Amours de ma mère'',
Translation (from English to French)
Winner:
*Charlotte Melançon, Charlotte et Robert Melançon, ''Le Second rouleau''
Other Finalists:
*Claire Dupond, ''Lettres à un ami québécois''
*Ivan Steenhout, ''Onyx John''
{{GovernorGeneralsAwards
Governor General's Awards
1990 literary awards, Governor General's Awards
1990 in Canada, Governor General's Awards