Governor General’s Literary Awards

• 4 paper copies of the book
• 1 e-book submitted in the portal (PDF)
• Hi-resolution image of book cover
• For the Translation category only: 4 paper copies of the original work and 4 paper copies of the translation
• For the Translation category only: 1 e-book of the original work and 1 e-book of the translation submitted in the portal (PDFs)

Who is eligible?

• Only eligible publishing houses can submit titles for consideration.
• Publishing houses may be based in Canada or abroad.

Who is not eligible

• Submissions by federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal government institutions are not eligible.

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Self-published books and books for which the author, translator or illustrator contributed financially towards the publication costs.
• Books that are only available in electronic format, reprints, spiral bound books, books previously submitted to a GGBooks competition, and books that do not contain new material.
• Textbooks, academic, scholarly and other specialized publications, academic theses, pedagogical or educational books, reference books, bibliographies, directories, and conference proceedings.
• Guidebooks, how-to and self-help books, books that focus on self-actualization or self-improvement, coffee-table books, cookbooks, exhibition catalogues, film scripts, testimonials, diaries, transcripts of interviews, collected letters, trivia books, books of quotations, jokes, anecdotes or sayings, and books of minimal critical content.
• Anthologies and collections of texts by more than one author, books by the current Governor General or former Governors General, and books translated into English from a language other than French.

• Eligible books are assessed according to literary merit.
• For Young People’s Literature - Illustrated Books, both literary and artistic merit are assessed, including how well the text and illustrations complement one another.
• For the Translation category, the literary merit of the translation is assessed.

• If you are submitting a book for the first time, or were previously ineligible, confirm eligibility with program staff by submitting a case through your portal account at least 2 weeks prior to the deadline.
• Submit 1 e-book in the portal as a PDF and a hi-resolution image of the book cover.
• For the Translation category, also submit 1 e-book of the original work and 1 e-book of the translation in the portal as PDFs.
• Send the required paper books by mail to Prizes, Canada Council for the Arts, P.O. Box 1047, Ottawa ON K1P 5V8, or by courier to Prizes, Canada Council for the Arts, 150 Elgin St., 2nd Floor, Ottawa ON K2P 1L4.
• Ensure the books are received by the Canada Council by the deadline date.

• The Canada Council may contact the publishing house for supplementary information to determine eligibility.
• Separate peer assessment committees are formed for each category.
• Any unrequested support material will not be reviewed and will be removed from the application.
• Finalists will be announced in the fall of 2026, and winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
• The winning writers, illustrators, translators and their publishers will be notified confidentially in advance of the winners' announcement.

• A book may be submitted to only 1 category.
• Books written and published in both French and English may be submitted to only 1 of the 2 language categories.
• Translated books are only eligible in the Translation category.
• Books originally written in a First Nations, Inuit or Métis language and later translated by the author into English or French are eligible in any category except Translation.