The winners of the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Awards are now known. The collaborator of Duty Marie-Hélène Poitras won the prize in the Novels and Short Stories category for her collection Galumpf, published by Alto editions.
Galumpf brings together eleven captivating stories, in which a divine gallery of characters comes to life united by the wounds and triumphs of living together, and who learn, sometimes the hard way, the ability to put themselves in the place of their neighbor.
“Although many of the texts were written before the pandemic, I believe they were brought together here by my post-pandemic consciousness. This great upheaval showed us the importance of the ties that unite us, in addition to raising a ton of questions about the collective impact of our individual choices,” confided the writer in an interview with Duty in April, when the book was published.
Other winners include Rita Mestokosho, awarded in the Poetry category for her collection Atikᵁ utei. The heart of the caribou (Inkwell Memory), which transmits the strength, power and courage drawn by the Innu people from the free spirit of the caribou. “It is towards an immersive healing that the writing of this collection seems to be accomplished, undertaking a journey that is as real as it is interior,” critic Hugues Corriveau indicated in our pages.
Philippe Bernier Arcand wins the prize in the Book Essays category False rebels: The excesses of political incorrectness (Bush Poets), in which he examines the desire of certain right-wing movements to position themselves as “rebels” in the face of an alleged hegemony of progressive thought.
In children’s literature, the jury rewarded the novel The unforgettable by Lou Beauchesne (La Courte Escale), as well as the illustrated album The world’s smallest savior by Samuel Larochelle and Ève Patenaude (XYZ).
The playwright Mathieu Gosselin stood out on the theater side, with his play Big guy (Somme tout), in which the alter ego of the author and actor questions his potential and what he does with it. Finally, Catherine Ego’s work on the translation of the essay In the Shadow of the Sun: Reflections on Race and Narratives (Boreal), was underlined.
The 14 winning books — seven in English and seven in French — were chosen by peer review committees. Founded in 1936, the Governor General’s Literary Awards are among the oldest and most prestigious honors awarded in Canada, with annual prizes totaling $450,000.