Author wins third Governor General award
OTTAWA — Saskatoon author Guy Vanderhaeghe has won his third Governor General’s Literary Award.
Vanderhaeghe won the latest honour, worth $25,000, in the English-language fiction category for his book Daddy Lenin and Other Stories (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada).
It’s a collection of nine stories, with characters including an actor who likes to hide behind his roles, and a middle-aged man who reunites with a former professor.
“Guy Vanderhaeghe’s Daddy Lenin and Other Stories is the work of an assured writer who needs no pyrotechnics to keep us reading,” said the judging committee in a statement.
“Each story is superbly crafted, razor-sharp, wickedly funny. The reader is carried along in the hands of a master, a seasoned professional at the top of his game.”
Vanderhaeghe previously won the fiction award in 1982, for his short story collection Man Descending, and in 1996 for his novel The Englishman’s Boy.
Other Governor General’s Literary Award winners announced on Wednesday included Montreal-raised Robyn Sarah, who won the poetry prize for My Shoes Are Killing Me (Biblioasis).
Saanich poet Patrick Lane was shortlisted for the award for his poetry collection Washita (Harbour Publishing).
David Yee of Toronto took the drama award for carried away on the crest of a wave (Playwrights Canada Press).
Vancouver bee-hive expert Mark L. Winston won for his nonfiction book Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive (Harvard University Press).
In the children’s literature (text) category, the winner was Ottawa’s Caroline Pignat for The Gospel Truth (Red Deer Press).
JonArno Lawson and Sydney Smith of Toronto got the children’s literature (illustrated books) prize for Sidewalk Flowers (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press).
And Montreal’s Rhonda Mullins took the translation (from French to English) prize for Twenty-One Cardinals (Coach House Books), by Jocelyne Saucier.
The Canada Council for the Arts administers the awards, which honour writers in both official languages and in seven categories. Each winner, chosen by peer assessment committees, receives $25,000.
Gov. Gen. David Johnston will present the awards on Dec. 2 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.