Finalists named for Governor General’s awards

Montreal’s Kathleen Winter and Joel Thomas Hynes of St. John’s, N.L., are among the finalists for this year’s Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.

Winter is being honoured for her novel “Lost in September” (Alfred A. Knopf Canada), which imagines General James Wolfe as a homeless veteran in modernday Montreal.

Hynes is on the list for his black comedy “We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night” (HarperCollins), which tells the story of a petty criminal trying to turn his life around.

The other fiction finalists announced Wednesday include Winnipeg’s Michael Kaan for his family saga “The Water Beetles” (Goose Lane Editions), Jocelyn Parr of Montreal for her postRussian Revolution novel “Uncertain Weights and Measures” (Goose Lane Editions) and Montreal-born Alison McLeod for her short story collection “All the Beloved Ghosts” (Penguin Canada).

Nominees in the non-fiction category are: Toronto’s Carol Off for “All We Leave Behind: A Reporter’s Journey into the Lives of Others” (Random House Canada); Graeme Wood for “The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State” (Random House); Toronto’s Elaine Dewar for “The Handover: How Bigwigs and Bureaucrats Transferred Canada’s Best Publisher and the Best Part of our Literary Heritage to a Foreign Multinational” (Biblioasis); Calgary’s Sharon Butala for her memoir “Where I Live Now: A Journey through Love and Loss to Healing and Hope” (Simon and Schuster Canada); and Sarah de Leeuw of Kelowna, B.C., for her essay collection “Where It Hurts” (NeWest Press).

Poetry prize contenders include Julia McCarthy of Upper Kennetcook, N.S., for “All the Names Between” (Brick Books); Lorna Crozier of North Saanich, B.C., for “What the Soul Doesn’t Want” (Freehand Books); Vancouver’s Benjamin Hertwig for “Slow War” (McGill-Queen’s University Press); Nora Gould of Consort, Alta., for “Selah” (Brick Books); and Calgary’s Richard Harrison “On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood” (Buckrider Books).

The nominees in the drama category are: Toronto’s Michael Healey for his political saga “1979” (Playwrights Canada Press); Kate Hennig of Stratford, Ont., for her Queen Elizabeth I drama “The Virgin Trial” (Playwrights Canada Press); Hamilton’s Anna Chatterton for her fertility-themed “Within the Glass” (Scirocco Drama); Hiro Kanagawa of Port Moody, B.C., for “Indian Arm” (Playwrights Canada Press); and Robert Chafe of St. John’s, N.L., for “The Colony of Unrequited Dreams” (Playwrights Canada Press).