Giller nominee Rachel Cusk among Governor General’s Literary Awards finalists

OTTAWA – After making the short list for the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize on Monday, Rachel Cusk is now a finalist for another lucrative honour — a Governor General’s Literary Award.

Cusk, who was born in Canada and lives in London, is on the short list for the $25,000 fiction prize for “Outline” (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.).

Other fiction finalists include two-time Governor General’s award winner Guy Vanderhaeghe of Saskatoon, who made the cut for “Daddy Lenin and Other Stories” (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada).

The short list is rounded out by Helen Humphreys of Kingston, Ont., for “The Evening Chorus” (HarperCollins), Toronto’s Kate Cayley for “How You Were Born” (Pedlar Press), and Clifford Jackman of Guelph, Ont., with “The Winter Family” (Random House Canada/Penguin Random House Canada).

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.

This year’s non-fiction, English-language short list includes former finalist Ted Bishop of Edmonton for “The Social Life of Ink: Culture, Wonder, and Our Relationship with the Written Word” (Viking/Penguin Random House Canada).

CBC correspondent David Halton of Ottawa is on the list for a book on his dad, “Dispatches from the Front: Matthew Halton, Canada’s Voice at War” (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada).

St. John’s journalist Michael Harris made the cut for “Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada’s Radical Makeover” (Viking/Penguin Random House Canada).

Aboriginal literature scholar Armand Garnet Ruffo of Kingston, Ont., is a contender with “Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing into Thunderbird” (Douglas & McIntyre).

And Vancouver bee expert Mark L. Winston is a finalist for “Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive” (Harvard University Press).

Other notable nominees for a 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award include Montreal’s Donald Winkler, who is also on the Giller short list, for translating the short story collection “Arvida” by Samuel Archibald.

For the Governor General’s honour, he’s a finalist in the category of Translation (French to English) for “Montcalm & Wolfe: Two Men Who Forever Changed the Course of Canadian History” (HarperCollins) by Roch Carrier.

His competition includes:

— David Scott Hamilton of Montreal for “Captive” (House of Anansi Press), by Claudine Dumont

— Lazer Lederhendler of Montreal for “The Lake” (Anansi), by Perrine Leblanc

— Rhonda Mullins of Montreal for “Twenty-One Cardinals” (Coach House Books), by Jocelyne Saucier

— And Susan Ouriou and Christelle Morelli of Calgary for “Stolen Sisters: The Story of Two Missing Girls, Their Families and How Canada Has Failed Indigenous Women” (HarperCollins) by Emmanuelle Walter

This year, 970 titles in the English-language categories and 559 in the French-language categories were submitted.

Here are the rest of the finalists:

Poetry:

— Kayla Czaga of Vancouver with “For Your Safety Please Hold On” (Nightwood Editions)

— Liz Howard of Toronto for “Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent) (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada)

— M. Travis Lane of Fredericton for “Crossover” (Cormorant Books)

— Patrick Lane of North Saanich, B.C. for “Washita” (Harbour Publishing)

— Robyn Sarah of Montreal for “My Shoes Are Killing Me” (Biblioasis)

Drama:

— Beth Graham of Edmonton for “The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble” (Playwrights Canada Press)

— Tara Grammy and Tom Arthur Davis of Los Angeles/Toronto for “Mahmoud” (Playwrights Canada Press)

— Bryden MacDonald of Toronto for “Odd Ducks” (Talonbooks)

— David Yee of Toronto for “carried away on the crest of a wave” (Playwrights Canada Press)

— Marcus Youssef and James Long of Vancouver/New Westminster, B.C. for “Winners and Losers” (Talonbooks)

Children’s Literature (Text):

— Dan Bar-el of Vancouver for “Audrey (cow)” (Tundra Books)

— Darren Groth of Delta, B.C. for “Are You Seeing Me?” (Orca Book Publishers)

— Susin Nielsen of Vancouver for “We Are All Made of Molecules” (Tundra Books/Penguin Random House Canada)

— Caroline Pignat of Ottawa for “The Gospel Truth” (Red Deer Press)

— Emil Sher of Toronto for “Young Man with Camera” (Scholastic Canada)

Children’s Literature (Illustrated Books):

— Andy Jones and Darka Erdelji of St. John’s/Maribor, Slovenia for “Jack, the King of Ashes” (Running the Goat Books & Broadsides)

— JonArno Lawson and Sydney Smith of Toronto for “Sidewalk Flowers” (Groundwood Books)

— Kyo Maclear and Marion Arbona of Toronto/Montreal for “The Good Little Book” (Tundra Books)

— John Martz of Toronto for “A Cat Named Tim and Other Stories” (Koyama Press)

— Melanie Watt of Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka, Que., for “Bug in a Vacuum” (Tundra Books)