Here are the finalists for the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award for young people’s literature — text.
The Governor General’s Literary Awards are one of Canada’s oldest and most prestigious literary prizes.
The prizes, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, are awarded in seven English-language categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young people’s literature — text, young people’s literature — illustration, drama and French-to-English translation. Seven French-language awards are also given out in the same categories. The Canada Council for the Arts is a partner of the CBC Literary Prizes.
Each winner will receive $25,000. The winners will be announced on Nov. 8, 2023.
The young people’s literature — text category was assessed by Cheryl Foggo, June Hur and Tom Ryan.
You can see the finalists in all seven categories here.
Get to know the young people’s literature — text finalists below.
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow follows pharmacy student Salama Kassab, who had a normal teenager’s life until the breakout of the Syrian Revolution. As she helps the wounded while volunteering at a hospital in Homs, Salama is secretly desperate to find a way out of her beloved country. This desperation manifests into a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of Khawf — an imaginary companion. As Khawf presses her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive.
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow also won the 2023 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award.
Zoulfa Katouh is a Syrian Canadian author based in Switzerland. She holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in drug sciences. As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is her debut novel.
Berani is a story is told in three voices: Malia, who is determined to risk whatever is necessary as a young environmental activist; Ari, who can tell what is right but fears what that path will cost him; and Ginger Juice, a caged orangutan whose former home was turned into a palm-oil plantation.
In Berani, Michelle Kadarusman draws on the plight of orangutans while offering up a narrative steeped in empathy and inspiration for youth.
Kadarusman is based in Toronto, grew up in Melbourne and has also lived in Indonesia. Her previous works include The Theory of Hummingbirds, Music for Tigers and Girl of the Southern Sea, which was a finalist for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award for young people’s literature — text.
In Fire on Headless Mountain, Virgil and his siblings trek out to a mountain lake to scattered the ashes of their beloved mother. But when a forest fire starts burning, Virgil becomes separated from his siblings and has to rely on himself to survive.
Iain Lawrence is a bestselling children’s book author. The B.C.-based writer won the 2007 Governor General’s Literary Award for children’s literature — text for the novel Gemini Summer. His recent book, Deadman’s Castle, won the 2022 Silver Birch Fiction Award.
The Probability of Everything follows eleven-year-old Kemi Carter, an avid fan of probability. When she sees an asteroid hovering over the sky, her perspective on everything changes. The asteroid has an 84.7 per cent chance of colliding with Earth in four days. Is she the only one who feels like the world is ending?
Sarah Everett is an author of several books for teens, currently based in Alberta. Her debut novel is Some Other Now.
Kim Spencer, a writer and member of the Ts’msyen Nation, is nominated in the young people’s literature category for her novel Weird Rules to Follow. Geared for ages 9-12, Weird Rules to Follow is set in the coastal fishing town of Prince Rupert in the 1980s. Pre-teens Mia and Lara have known each other since kindergarten, but Mia lives a very different life than her non-Indigenous, middle-class best friend. While this never seemed to matter to the girls, Mia begins to notice that adults treat her differently, just because she is Indigenous.
Weird Rules to Follow recently won the 2023 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award — the largest cash prize in Canadian children’s literature, the 2023 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People and the 2023 Jean Little First-Novel Award. The book was also shortlisted for a 2023 Indigenous Voices Award.
Kim Spencer is a writer and member of the Ts’msyen Nation in northwest B.C., and currently lives in Vancouver. She is a graduate of the Writers Studio at Simon Fraser University and her work has appeared in Filling Station magazine and shortlisted for the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association Award.