Being governor general isn’t all about making agonizing decisions regarding the state of Parliament and the political health of the country; once in a while you have to do ceremonial stuff, too. On Wednesday, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean handed over the Governor General’s Literary Awards at an Ottawa ceremony. (Photos by P. Doyle, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts.)

Nino Ricci gets the fiction prize for The Origin of Species (Doubleday Canada).

Odds are that Christie Blatchford, non-fiction winner for Fifteen Days (Doubleday Canada), either just said or is about to say something saucy.

Jacob Scheier, poetry winner for More to Keep Us Warm (ECW Press).

John Ibbitson won children’s text for The Landing (Kids Can Press)…

… and another Kids Can creator, Stéphane Jorisch, took children’s illustration for The Owl and the Pussycat.

Catherine Banks is either marvelling at her drama prize for Bone Cage (Playwrights Canada Press), or else she’s noticing something amiss.

Lazer Lederhendler picks up the French-to-English translation prize for his work on Nicolas Dickner’s Nikolski (Knopf Canada).

This year’s Governor General’s Literary Award shortlists were announced Tuesday morning. Watch for full coverage on the Q&Q Omni site, later today, but in the meantime, here are the English-language nominees.

Fiction

• Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen (HarperCollins)
• Cockroach by Rawi Hage (House of Anansi Press)
• The Origin of Species by Nino Ricci (Doubleday Canada)
• The Lost Highway by David Adams Richards (Doubleday Canada)
• The Great Karoo by Fred Stenson (Doubleday Canada)

Non-fiction

• Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army by Christie Blatchford (Doubleday Canada)
• God’s Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal and the Dream of Discovery by Douglas Hunter (Doubleday Canada)
• The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek by Sid Marty (McClelland & Stewart)
• An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-first Century by James Orbinski (Doubleday Canada)
• The Geography of Hope: A Tour of the World We Need by Chris Turner (Random House of Canada)

Children’s literature – text

• Libertad by Alma Fullerton (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• The Landing by John Ibbitson (Kids Can Press)
• Shimmerdogs by Dianne Linden (Thistledown Press)
• Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji (Second Story Press)
• Skim by Mariko Tamaki (Groundwood Books)

Children’s Literature – illustration

• My Letter to the World and Other Poems by Isabelle Arsenault (Kids Can Press)
• The Emperor’s Second Hand Clothes by Josee Bisaillon (Smith, Bonappetit & Son)
• Yellow Moon, Apple Moon by Matt James (Groundwood Books)
• The Owl and the Pussycat by Stéphane Jorisch (Kids Can Press)
• Shin-chi’s Canoe by Kim LaFave (Groundwood Books)

Poetry

• Noise from the Laundry by Weyman Chan (Talonbooks)
• The Sentinel by A. F. Moritz (House of Anansi Press)
• The Invisibility Exhibit by Sachiko Murakami (Talonbooks)
• Aide-Memoire by Ruth Roach Pierson (BuschekBooks)
• More to Keep Us Warm by Jacob Scheier (ECW Press)

Drama

• Bone Cage by Catherine Banks (Playwrights Canada Press)
• 10 Days on Earth by Ronnie Burkett (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Reverend Jonah by Paul Ciufo (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)
• Copper Thunderbird by Marie Clements (Talonbooks)
• Palace of the End by Judith Thompson (Playwrights Canada Press)

The November 2007 issue of Quill & Quire is now in stores coast to coast. Inside is a profile of mystery novelist Louise Penny, complemented by closeups of 10 other Canadian mystery writers. Other features include a survey of literary festivals across the country and a report on the pros and cons of freelance vs. in-house publicity. In the Scholarly and College Publishing Special Report, we ask whether scholarly presses should embrace the Open Access movement (i.e., give books away free online) and we also investigate how little gadgets called “classroom clickers” are transforming the college textbook market. All this plus more than 40 reviews, including looks at new titles by D.R. MacDonald, Christie Blatchford, Frances Itani, Kit Pearson, Deborah Ellis and Eric Walters, Stephen Henighan, and more. The full table of contents is after the jump.

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