The Canadian Authors Association is Canada's oldest association for writers and authors. The organization has published several periodicals, organized local chapters and events for Canadian writers, and sponsors writing awards, including the

Governor General's Awards The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

History

The Canadian Authors Association was founded in 1921. The founding organizers included John Murray Gibbon,

Bernard Keble Sandwell Bernard Keble Sandwell, or BK as he was more commonly known, (December 6, 1876 – December 7, 1954) was a Canadian author, and a magazine and newspaper editor, best known as the editor of '' Saturday Night'' (1932-1951). Early life Sandwell ...

, Stephen Leacock, and Pelham Edgar. By the end of its first year the organization had more than 700 members. In its early years the association was known for its conservative views on literature and its support of traditional writing genres, including colourful idealized stories in quaint local settings. Local chapters of the CAA organized activities to encourage and develop the skills of Canadian writers, including study groups, readings, and workshops. In 1919, the CAA founded a magazine, ''Canadian Bookman''. In 1936, the association founded ''Canadian Poetry'', edited by E. J. Pratt. The association founded the Governor General's Awards in 1937, Canada's highest literary award, as well as the Canadian Authors Association Awards.

Notable presidents

* Will R. Bird (c. 1949–1950), writer, author, recipient of Ryerson Fiction Award *

W. G. Hardy William George Hardy (February 3, 1895 – August 28, 1979) was a Canadian professor, writer, and ice hockey administrator. He lectured on the Classics at the University of Alberta from 1922 to 1964, and served as president of the Canadian Aut ...

(1950–1952), Professor of Classics at University of Alberta, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, Member of the Order of Canada

Awards

The Canadian Authors Awards, originally known as Canadian Authors Association or CAA Awards and now occasionally called Literary Awards, were created in 1975 to fill in for the Governor General’s medals, as these were overtaken by the

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal in ...

, and were presented in multiple categories to authors who are Canadian born or permanent residents. The following is an incomplete list of winners of the award, originally given out in three categories (fiction, poetry and drama), before the category Canadian History and the Emerging Writer Award were added in 1997 and 2006. After 2017 all categories were discontinued and replaced by the Canadian Authors Fred Kerner Award, which had already been accoladed the first time in 2016. ;CAA Award for Fiction (1975–2017) * 1975 Fred Stenson for ''Lonesome Hero'' * 1976 ''none'' * 1977 Carol Shields for ''Small Ceremonies'' * 1978

Jane Rule Jane Vance Rule (28 March 1931 – 27 November 2007) was a Canadian writer of lesbian-themed works. Her first novel, '' Desert of the Heart'', appeared in 1964, when gay activity was still a criminal offence. It turned Rule into a reluctant ...

for ''The Young in One Another's Arms'' * 1979

Marian Engel Marian Ruth Engel (née Passmore; May 24, 1933 – February 16, 1985) was a Canadian novelist and a founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada. Her most famous and controversial novel was ''Bear'' (1976), a tale of erotic love between an ar ...

for ''The Glassy Sea'' * 1980 ''none'' * 1981

Hugh MacLennan John Hugh MacLennan (March 20, 1907 – November 9, 1990) was a Canadian writer and professor of English at McGill University. He won five Governor General's Awards and a Royal Bank Award. Family and childhood MacLennan was born in Glace B ...

for ''Voices in Time'' * 1982

Joy Kogawa Joy Nozomi Kogawa (born June 6, 1935) is a Canadian poet and novelist of Japanese descent. Life Kogawa was born Joy Nozomi Nakayama on June 6, 1935, in Vancouver, British Columbia, to first-generation Japanese Canadians Lois Yao Nakayama a ...

for ''Obasan'' * 1983 W.P. Kinsella for ''Shoeless Joe'' * 1984 Heather Robertson for ''Willie: A Romance: Volume 1 of the King Years'' * 1985

Timothy Findley Timothy Irving Frederick Findley Timothy Findley's
entry in

Robertson Davies William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters" ...

for ''What's Bred in the Bone (Cornish Trilogy, #2)'' * 1987 ''none'' * 1988 Brian Moore for ''The Colour of Blood'' * 1989

Joan Clark Joan Clark BA, D.Litt. (hon.) (née MacDonald) (born 12 October 1934) is a Canadian fiction author. Born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Clark spent her youth in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She attended Acadia University for its drama progr ...

for ''The Victory Of Geraldine Gull'' * 1990 James Houston for ''Running West'' * 1991 David Adams Richards for ''Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace'' * 1992 Alberto Manguel for ''News From A Foreign Country Came'' * 1993

Neil Bissoondath Neil Devindra Bissoondath (born April 19, 1955, in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Trinidadian-Canadian author who lives in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. He is a noted writer of fiction. He is an outspoken critic of Canada's system of multicultur ...

for ''Innocence Of Age'' * 1994

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, ...

for ''The Robber Bride'' * 1995 Bernice Morgan for ''Waiting for Time (Random Passage, #2)'' * 1996 L.R. Wright for ''Mother Love (Karl Alberg #7)'' * 1997

Ann-Marie MacDonald Ann-Marie MacDonald (born October 29, 1958) is a Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host who lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. MacDonald is the daughter of a member of Canada's military; she was born at an air force base near ...

for ''Fall on Your Knees'' * 1998 Rita Donovan for ''Landed'' * 1999 Wayne Johnston for ''The Colony of Unrequited Dreams'' * 2000

Alistair MacLeod Alistair MacLeod, (July 20, 1936 – April 20, 2014) was a Canadian novelist, short story writer and academic. His powerful and moving stories vividly evoke the beauty of Cape Breton Island's rugged landscape and the resilient character of m ...

for ''No Great Mischief'' * 2001 Elizabeth Hay for ''A Student of Weather'' * 2002 Will Ferguson for ''Happiness'' * 2003 Rohinton Mistry for ''Family Matters'' * 2004

Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer, and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms ''Generation X'' and ''McJ ...

for ''Hey Nostradamus!'' * 2005

Jeffrey Moore Jeffrey Moore is a Canadian writer, translator and educator currently living in Val-Morin in the Quebec Laurentians. Moore was born in Montreal, and educated at the University of Toronto, BA, the Sorbonne and the University of Ottawa, MA. ...

for ''The Memory Artists'' * 2006

Joseph Boyden Joseph Boyden (born October 31, 1966) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Irish and Scottish descent. He also claims Indigenous descent, but this is widely disputed. Joseph Boyden is best known for writing about First Nations culture ...

for ''Three Day Road'' * 2007

Richard Wagamese Richard Wagamese (October 14, 1955 – March 10, 2017) was an Ojibwe Canadian author and journalist from the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations in Northwestern Ontario."Indian Horse is a dark ride". ''Calgary Herald'', February 28, 2012. He was best ...

for ''Dream Wheels'' * 2008

Paulette Jiles Paulette Jiles (aka Paulette K. Jiles, Paulette Jiles-Johnson) (born 4 April 1943) is an American poet, memoirist, and novelist. Personal life Paulette Kay Jiles was born in 1943 in Salem, Missouri. She attended college at the University ...

for ''Stormy Weather'' * 2009

Nino Ricci Nino Pio Ricci (born 1959) is a Canadian novelist who lives in Toronto, Ontario.Nino Ricci's
...

for ''The Origin of Species'' * 2010

Michael Crummey Michael Crummey (born November 18, 1965) is a Canadian poet and a writer of historical fiction. His writing often draws on the history and landscape of Newfoundland and Labrador. Early life and education Crummey was born in Buchans, Newfoundlan ...

for ''Galore'' * 2011 Tom Rachman for ''The Imperfectionists'' * 2012 Patrick deWitt for ''The Sisters Brothers'' * 2013

Christopher Meades Christopher Meades is the Vancouver author of four novels, including ''The Last Hiccup'' (2012), which won the 2013 Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction. His story ''The Walking Lady'' won the 2009 Toyon fiction prize and his short ficti ...

for ''The Last Hiccup'' * 2014

for ''The Orenda'' * 2015 Miriam Toews for ''All My Puny Sorrows'' * 2016

Nino Ricci Nino Pio Ricci (born 1959) is a Canadian novelist who lives in Toronto, Ontario.Nino Ricci's
...

for ''Sleep'' * 2017 Alissa York for ''The Naturalist'' ;CAA Award for Poetry (1975–2017) * 1975

Tom Wayman Thomas Ethan Wayman (born 13 August 1945) is a Canadian author. Born in Hawkesbury, Ontario, Wayman has lived most of his life in British Columbia. He studied at the University of British Columbia (BA 1966), and the University of California, ...

for ''For and Against the Moon'' * 1976 Jim Green for ''North Book'' * 1977 Sid Stephen for ''Beothuck Poems'' * 1978

Alden Nowlan Alden Albert Nowlan (; January 25, 1933 – June 27, 1983) was a Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright. History Alden Nowlan was born into rural poverty in Stanley, Nova Scotia, adjacent to Mosherville, and close to the small town of Windsor ...

for''Smoked Glass'' * 1979

Andrew Suknaski Andrew Suknaski (July 30, 1942 – May 3, 2012) was a Canadian poet and visual artist. Early life and education He was born on a homestead near Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan and studied at a number of institutions, receiving a diploma of Fine Art ...

for ''The Ghosts You Call Poor'' * 1980

Michael Ondaatje Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller P ...

for ''There's a Trick with a Knife I’m Learning to Do: Poems, 1963–1978'' * 1981 Leona Gom for ''Land of The Peace'' * 1982

Gary Geddes Gary Geddes (born 9 June 1940 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian poet and writer. Biography He spent four years of his childhood on the Canadian prairies, but otherwise remained on the west coast until 1963, where he got his bachelor's ...

for ''the acid test'' * 1983 George Amabile for ''the presence of fire'' * 1984 Don McKay for ''Birding or Desire'' * 1985

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

for ''Book of Mercy'' * 1986 P.K. Page for ''The Glass Air'' * 1987

Al Purdy Alfred Wellington Purdy (December 30, 1918 – April 21, 2000) was a 20th-century Canadian free verse poet. Purdy's writing career spanned fifty-six years. His works include thirty-nine books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four b ...

for ''The Collected Poems 1956–1986'' * 1988 Pat Lane for ''Selected Poems'' * 1989 Bruce Rice for ''Daniel'' * 1990 Don Bailey for ''Homeless Heart'' * 1991 Richard Lemm for ''Prelude to the Bacchanal'' * 1992

Anne Michaels Anne Michaels (born 15 April 1958) is a Canadian poet and novelist whose work has been translated and published in over 45 countries. Her books have garnered dozens of international awards including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, t ...

for ''Miner's Pond'' * 1993

Lorna Crozier Lorna Crozier, OC (born 24 May 1948) is a Canadian poet who holds the Head Chair in the Writing Department at the University of Victoria. She has authored fifteen books and was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2011. She is credited as ...

for ''Inventing the Hawk'' * 1994 George Bowering for ''George Bowering Selected Poems'' * 1995

Tim Lilburn Tim Lilburn (born 27 June 1950) is a Canadian poet and essayist. Lilburn was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. He obtained a B.A. from the University of Regina, a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Gonzaga University, and his PhD from McMaster Uni ...

for ''Moosehead Sandhills'' * 1996

Di Brandt Di Brandt (born 31 January 1952) (née Janzen) often stylized as di brandt, is a Canadian poet and scholar from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She became Winnipeg's first Poet Laureate in 2018. Life and career Brandt grew up in Reinland, a Mennonite farmin ...

for ''Jerusalem, beloved'' * 1997 E.D. Blodgett for ''Apostrophes: woman at a piano'' * 1998

Anne Szumigalski Anne Szumigalski, SOM (b. 3 January 1922 in London, England, d. 22 April 1999) was a Canadian poet. Life She was born Anne Howard Davis in London, England, and grew up mostly in a Hampshire village. She served with the Red Cross as a medical ...

for ''On Glassy Wings'' * 1999

Janice Kulyk Keefer Janice Kulyk Keefer (born 2 June 1952) is a Canadian novelist and poet. Of Ukrainian heritage, Kulyk Keefer often writes about the experiences of first-generation Canadian children of immigrants. Biography She was born as Janice Kulyk on 2 Jun ...

for ''Marrying the Sea'' * 2000

Helen Humphreys Helen Humphreys (born March 29, 1961) is a Canadian poet and novelist. Personal life Humphreys was born in Kingston-on-Thames, England. Her brother Martin and sister Cathy were born after the family moved to Canada. She now lives in Kingsto ...

for ''Anthem'' * 2001

Carmine Starnino Carmine Starnino is a Canadian poet, essayist, educator and editor. Biography He was born in 1970 in Montreal, Quebec, into an Italian heritage. His first poetry collection ''The New World'' (1997) was nominated for the 1997 A. M. Klein Prize ...

for ''Credo'' * 2002

Tim Bowling Tim Bowling (born 1964 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Guggenheim winning Canadian novelist and poet. He spent his youth in Ladner, British Columbia, and now lives in Edmonton, Alberta. He has published four novels. He was a judge for the ...

for ''Darkness and Silence'' * 2003 Margaret Avison for ''Concrete and Wild Carrot'' * 2004 Chris Banks for ''Bonfires'' * 2005

Peter Trower Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

for ''Haunted Hills and Hanging Valleys'' * 2006

Barry Dempster Barry Edward Dempster (born 17 January 1952) is a Canadian poet, novelist, and editor. Barry Dempster was born in Toronto, Ontario, and educated in child psychology. He is the author of two novels, a children's book, three volumes of short sto ...

for ''The Burning Alphabet'' * 2007

Sarah Klassen Sarah Klassen (born 1932) is an award-winning Canadian writer living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Klassen's first volume of poetry, ''Journey to Yalta'', was awarded the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award in 1989. Klassen is the recipient of Canadian Autho ...

for ''A Curious Beatitude'' * 2008 Asa Boxer for ''The Mechanical Bird'' * 2009 Elise Partridge for ''Chameleon Hours'' * 2010 Tom Dawe for ''Where Genesis Begins'' * 2011

Julia McCarthy Julia McCarthy (1964-2021) was a Canadian poet.

for ''Return from Erebus'' * 2012 Goran Simić for ''Sunrise in the Eyes of the Snowman'' * 2013 Don McKay for ''Paradoxides'' * 2014 Renee Sarojini Saklikar for ''children of air india'' * 2015

for ''Circa Nineteen Hundred and Grief'' * 2016

Joe Denham Joe Denham is a Canadian poet and fiction writer."Windstorm, by Joe Denham"
''

for ''Regeneration Machine'' * 2017 Johanna Skibsrud for ''The Description of the World'' ;CAA Award for Canadian History (1997–2017) *1997

Phil Jenkins Phil may refer to: * Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names * Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil" * Phil, Kentucky, United States * ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film * -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as a root te ...

for ''An Acre of Time'' *1998

Dorothy Harley Eber Dorothy Margaret Eber, Dorothy Harley Eber, C.M.
gg ...

for ''Images of Justice'' *1999

Rod McQueen Roderick Ian Macqueen, AM is an Australian former rugby union coach. He coached Australia at the Rugby World Cup, and the Waratahs, Brumbies and Rebels in the Super Rugby competition. Career One of Macqueen's first major coaching positions was ...

for ''The Eatons'' *2000 D’Arcy Jenish for ''Indian Fall (The Last Great Days of the Plains Cree and the Blackfoot Confederacy)'' *2001 Will Ferguson for ''Canadian History for Dummies'' *2002

Ken McGoogan Kenneth McGoogan (born 1947). is the Canadian author of fifteen books, including ''Flight of the Highlanders'', ''Dead Reckoning'', ''50 Canadians Who Changed the World'', ''How the Scots Invented Canada'', and four biographical narratives focusing ...

for ''Fatal Passage: The Untold Story of John Rae, the Arctic Adventurer Who Discovered the Fate of Franklin'' *2003

Derek Hayes Derek Hayes (born 8 December 1977 in Dungannon) is a British former race driver from Northern Ireland who competed in various series including Formula Palmer Audi, Formula 3 Euroseries, NASCAR Busch Series and British Formula 3. In the latter, he ...

for ''Historical Atlas of Canada'' *2004 Ishmael Alunik, Eddie D. Kolausok and David Morrison for ''Across Time and Tundra: The Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic'' *2005 Charlotte Gray for ''The Museum Called Canada'' *2006

J.L. Granatstein Jack Lawrence Granatstein (May 21, 1939) is a Canadian historian who specializes in Canadian political and military history.SeJack Granatsteinfrom The Canadian Encyclopedia Education Born on May 21, 1939, in Toronto, Ontario, into a Jewish fam ...

for'' The Last Good War'' *2007 Mark Zuehlke for ''For Honour's Sake: the War of 1812 and the Brokering of an Uneasy Peace'' *2008 Robert Wright for ''Three Nights in Havana'' *2009 J.M. Bumsted for ''Lord Selkirk: A Life'' *2010 Jonathan F. Vance for ''A History of Canadian Culture'' * 2011 Shelagh D. Grant for ''Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America'' * 2012

Richard Gwyn Richard Gwyn (ca. 1537 – 15 October 1584), also known by his anglicised name, Richard White, was a Welsh teacher at illegal and underground schools and a Bard who wrote both Christian and satirical poetry in the Welsh language. A Rom ...

for ''Nation Maker: Sir John A. MacDonald: His Life, Our Times, Volume Two: 1867–1891'' * 2013 Michael S. Cross for ''A Biography of Robert Baldwin: The Morning-Star of Memory'' * 2014 Charlotte Gray for ''The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master and the Trial that Shocked a Nation'' * 2015 Robert Wright for ''The Night Canada Stood Still'' * 2016 Debra Komer for ''The Bastard of Fort Stikine: The

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

and the Murder of John McLoughlin Jr.'' * 2017 Charlotte Gray for ''The Promise of Canada'' ;CAA Emerging Writer Award (2006–2017) * 2011 Titilope Sonuga for ''Down to Earth'' * 2012 Ryan Flavelle for ''The Patrol: Seven Days in the Life of a Canadian Soldier in Afghanistan'' * 2013 Tie: Claire Battershill for several fiction, poetry and review works and

Jay Bahadur Jay Bahadur (born 1984) is a Canadian journalist and author. He became known for his reporting on piracy in Somalia, writing for ''The New York Times'', ''The Financial Post'', ''The Globe and Mail'', and ''The Times'' of London. Bahadur has als ...

for journalistic work and ''The Pirates of Somalia'' * 2014 Grace O'Connell for ''Magnified World'' * 2015 Kim Fu for ''For Today I Am a Boy'' * 2016 Kayla Czaga for ''For Your Safety Please Hold On'' * 2017

Eva Crocker Eva Crocker is a Canadian writer based in St. John's, whose debut short story collection ''Barrelling Forward'' was published in 2017. The daughter of writer Lisa Moore and Memorial University of Newfoundland academic Stephen Crocker, she was ...

for several anthology stories ;CAA Award for Drama (1975–prior 2017) * 1985

Ken Mitchell Ken Mitchell (born December 13, 1940) is a Canadian poet, novelist and playwright. Mitchell was raised on a rural farm outside the city of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Mitchell began his post-secondary education as a journalism student at Ryerson In ...

for ''Gone The Burning Sun'' * 1992

Drew Hayden Taylor Drew Hayden Taylor (born 1 July 1962) is a Canadian playwright, author and journalist. Life and career Born in Curve Lake, Ontario, Taylor is part Ojibwe and part Caucasian. About his background Taylor says: "I plan to start my own nation. B ...

for ''The Bootlegger Blues: A Play'' * 1993

Guy Vanderhaeghe Guy Clarence Vanderhaeghe (born April 5, 1951) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer, best known for his Western novel trilogy, '' The Englishman's Boy'', ''The Last Crossing'', and ''A Good Man'' set in the 19th-century American and Can ...

for ''I Had A Job I Liked. Once: A Play'' ;Canadian Authors Fred Kerner Award * 2016 Caroline Vu for ''Palawan Story'' * 2017 Margo Wheaton for ''The Unlit Path Behind the House'' * 2018 Ahmad Danny Ramadan for ''The Clothesline Swing'' * 2019

Maureen Medved Maureen Medved is a Canadian writer and playwright. She is also an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. She has been published in literary journals and magazines and has had her plays produced in Vancouver, British Columbia, ...

for ''Black Star'' * 2020 Adrienne Drobnies for ''Salt and Ashes'' * 2021 Joanna Lilley for ''Endlings'' * 2022 Catherine Graham for ''Æther: An Out-of-Body Lyric''

References

{{reflist 1921 establishments in Canada Governor General's Awards Canadian writers' organizations