Renowned poet Anne Carson and author Thomas King are among the veteran writers nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Awards.

Each will face stiff competition from a growing class of word blacksmiths to win the $ 25,000 prize in their respective categories.

Organizers have named finalists for the 2020 awards, which are administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, Tuesday – several months later than the usual fall announcement.

They say the review process has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the schedule is expected to return to normal for the 2021 competition.

The peer review committees selected 70 titles published last year to be shortlisted in seven categories in English and French.

The winners will be revealed on June 1.

King, based in Guelph, Ont., Is shortlisted for the Fiction Award for his anti-travel story, “Indians on Vacation,” from HarperCollins Canada, which was a Writers’ Trust finalist last year.

Cree lawyer and author Michelle Good also received two nods from the Writers’ Trust and Governor General’s Awards for “Five Little Indians” from HarperCollins Canada. The first novel follows a group of residential school survivors trying to forge a new life in Vancouver.

Fictional finalists also include Francesca Ekwuyasi of Halifax with her Giller List debut tracing the intergenerational saga of three Nigerians ‘Butter Honey Pig Bread’, from Arsenal Pulp Press; Writer Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg Leanne Betasamosake Simpson for the genre-defying “Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies”, from House of Anansi Press; and Toronto poet Lisa Robertson’s first foray into writing “The Baudelaire Fractal” by Coach House Books.

Born in Toronto, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Carson adds to her long list of accolades as a nominee in the poetry category for “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy,” of New Directions Publishing.

She will face her sweetheart Canisia Lubrin of Whitby, Ont., Who is nominated for “The Dyzgraphxst,” published by McClelland & Stewart, which is shortlisted for this year’s Griffin Poetry Prize.

Other contenders for poetry include Oana Avasilichioaei of Montreal for “Eight Track” by Talonbooks; Donna Kane of Rolla, BC, for “Orrery”, of Harbor Publishing; and Sachiko Murakami of Toronto for “Render”, from Arsenal Pulp Press.

Cree writer and scholar Billy-Ray Belcourt, who won the Griffin Prize for Poetry in 2018, is establishing his good faith between genres as a non-fiction candidate for “A History of My Brief Body,” by Hamish Hamilton.

Hamilton disability rights advocate Amanda Leduc also got a non-fiction sign for “Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space” from Coach House Books.

Rounding out the category is Ivan Coyote in Vancouver for “Rebent Sinner,” from Arsenal Pulp Press; Guyanese-Canadian author Tessa McWatt for “Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging,” by Random House Canada; and Madhur Anand, of Guelph, Ont., for “This Red Line Goes Straight To Heart: A Memoir in Halves”.

The finalists in the drama category are: Yolanda Bonnell of Toronto for “bug”, of Scirocco Drama / J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing; Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman of Toronto for “Guarded Girls,” of Playwrights Canada Press; Kim Senklip Harvey of Vancouver for “Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story,” by Talonbooks; Christopher Cook of Vancouver for “Quick Bright Things,” of Playwrights Canada Press; and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard of Hamilton for “Sound of the Beast,” from Playwrights Canada Press.

Distinctions will also be awarded for writing and illustration in children’s literature, as well as translation from French to English. There are separate French language categories for French writing.

The awards provide a total annual value of $ 450,000.

Each winner receives $ 25,000, while the publisher of each winning book receives $ 3,000 to support promotional activities. The finalists each receive $ 1,000.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 4, 2021.

Adina Bresge, The Canadian Press