If you haven't spent much time following literary book awards they are an excellent source for interesting reading lists. Here is a listing of books from the Governor General's Literary Award celebrating Canadian fiction from 1936 to present. Follow along in order or pick and choose as it pleases.
1936 - Think of the Earth (Bertram Brooker)
1937 - The Dark Weaver (Laura G. Salverson)
1938 - Swiss Sonata (Gwethalyn Graham)
1939 - The Champlain Road (Franklin D. McDowell)
1940 - Thirty Acres (Philippe Panneton a.k.a Ringuet)
1941 - Three Came to Ville Marie (Alan Sullivan)
1942 - Little Man (G. Herbert Sallans)
1943 - The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek (Thomas H. Raddall)
1944 - Earth and High Heaven (Gwethalyn Graham)
1945 - Two Solitudes (Hugh MacLennan)
1946 - Continental Revue (Winifred Bambrick)
1947 - The Tin Flute (Gabrielle Roy)
1948 - The Precipice (Hugh MacLennan)
1949 - Mr. Ames Against Time (Philip Child)
1950 - The Outlander (Germaine Gu�vremont)
1951 - The Loved and the Lost (Morley Callaghan)
1952 - The Pillar (David Walker)
1953 - Digby (David Walker)
1954 - The Fall of a Titan (Igor Gouzenko)
1955 - The Sixth of June (Lionel Shapiro)
1956 - The Sacrifice (Adele Wiseman)
1957 - Street of Riches (Gabrielle Roy)
1958 - Execution (Colin McDougall)
1959 - The Watch That Ends the Night (Hugh MacLennan)
1960 - The Luck of Ginger Coffey(Brian Moore)
1961 - Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place (Malcolm Lowry)
1962 - Running to Paradise (Kildare Dobbs)
1963 - Hugh Garner's Best Stories (Hugh Garner)
1964 - The Deserter (Douglas LePan)
1965 - No fiction prize awarded
1966 - A Jest of God (Margaret Laurence)
1967 - No fiction prize awarded
1968 - Dance of the Happy Shades (Alice Munro)
1969 - The Studhorse Man (Robert Kroetsch)
1970 - The New Ancestors (Dave Godfrey)
1971 - St. Urbain's Horseman (Mordecai Richler)
1972 - The Manticore (Robertson Davies)
1973 - The Temptations of Big Bear (Rudy Wiebe)
1974 - The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
1975 - The Great Victorian Collection (Brian Moore)
1976 - Bear (Marian Engel)
1977 - The Wars (Timothy Findley)
1978 - Who Do You Think You Are? (Alice Munro)
1979 - The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (Jack Hodgins)
1980 - Burning Water (George Bowering)
1981 - The Collected Poems of F.R. Scott (F.R. Scott)
1982 - Man Descending (Guy Vanderhaeghe)
1983 - Shakespeare's Dog (Leon Rooke)
1984 - The Engineer of Human Souls (Josef Skvorecky)
1985 - The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
1986 - The Progress of Love (Alice Munro)
1987 - A Dream Like Mine (M.T. Kelly)
1988 - Nights Below Station Street (David Adams Richards)
1989 - Whale Music (Paul Quarrington)
1990 - Lives of the Saints (Nino Ricci)
1991 - Such a Long Journey (Rohinton Mistry)
1992 - The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
1993 - The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
1994 - A Discovery of Strangers (Rudy Wiebe)
1995 - The Roaring Girl (Greg Hollingshead)
1996 - The Englishman's Boy (Guy Vanderhaeghe)
1997 - The Underpainter (Jane Urquhart)
1998 - Forms of Devotion (Diane Schoemperlen)
1999 - Elizabeth and After (Matt Cohen)
2000 - Anil's Ghost (Michael Ondaatje)
2001 - Clara Callan (Richard B. Wright)
2002 - A Song for Nettie Johnson (Gloria Sawai)
2003 - Elle (Douglas Glover)
2004 - A Complicated Kindness (Miriam Toews)
2005 - A Perfect Night to Go to China (David Gilmour)
2006 - The Law of Dreams (Peter Behrens)
2007 - Divisadero (Michael Ondaatje)
2008 -
You can search for these or any other books at your local library or through Amazon's handy search box below.
M. E. Wood lives in Eastern Ontario, Canada. If you are going to find this eclectic reader and writer anywhere it is probably at her computer. For more information visit her official website.
