The nominees for the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Awards

BK Munn in Sequential.

The nominees for the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Awards have been announced and several well-known comics and comic creators have made the cut in the children’s literature categories. Jillian Tamaki and Julie Morstad are nominated in the English illustration category, Mariko Tamaki in the English writer category, and Pascal Blanchet and Marianne Dubuc in the French-language illustration category. The winners will be announced November 18 and the winners each receive $25,000 (the rest of finalists receive $1,000 each).


The GGs seem to have entered a new era of comics-friendliness, with several French-language comics winning awards since the controversy surrounding the exclusion of Jillian Tamaki in 2008.

Here are the nominees in the four kid lit categories:

Children’s Literature (Illustration)

Marie-Louise Gay, Any Questions?, text by Marie-Louise Gay (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)
Qin Leng, Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin, text by Chieri Uegaki (Kids Can Press)
Renata Liwska, Once Upon a Memory, text by Nina Laden (Little, Brown and Company)
Julie Morstad, Julia, Child, text by Kyo Maclear (Tundra Books)
Jillian Tamaki, This One Summer, text by Mariko Tamaki (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)

Children’s Literature (Text)

Jonathan Auxier, The Night Gardener (Penguin Canada)
Lesley Choyce, Jeremy Stone (Red Deer Press)
Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, Skraelings (Inhabit Media Inc.)
Raziel Reid, When Everything Feels like the Movies (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Mariko Tamaki, This One Summer (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)

Littérature jeunesse (texte)

Linda Amyot, Le jardin d’Amsterdam (Leméac Éditeur)
India Desjardins, Le Noël de Marguerite (Les Éditions de la Pastèque)
Patrick Isabelle, Eux (Leméac Éditeur)
Jean-François Sénéchal, Feu (Leméac Éditeur)
Mélanie Tellier, Fiona (Marchand de feuilles)

Littérature jeunesse (illustrations) 

Pascal Blanchet, Le Noël de Marguerite, texte de India Desjardins (Les Éditions de la Pastèque)
Marianne Dubuc, Le lion et l’oiseau, texte de Marianne Dubuc (Les Éditions de la Pastèque)
Manon Gauthier, Grand-mère, elle et moi…, texte de Yves Nadon (Éditions Les 400 coups)
Isabelle Malenfant, Pablo trouve un trésor, texte de Andrée Poulin (Éditions Les 400 coups)
Pierre Pratt, Gustave, texte de Rémy Simard (Les Éditions de la Pastèque)