Each winner of the 1991 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit received $10,000 and a medal from the Governor General of Canada.^[1] The winners were selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.

English

Category	Winner	Nominated
Fiction	Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey	Margaret Atwood, Wilderness Tips Don Dickinson, Blue Husbands Douglas Glover, A Guide to Animal Behaviour Terry Griggs, Quickening
Non-fiction	Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo, Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past	Northrop Frye, Words With Power Kristjana Gunnars, Zero Hour D. L. MacDonald, Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography of the Author of "The Vampyre" Rosemary Sullivan, By Heart: Elizabeth Smart, A Life
Poetry	Don McKay, Night Field	Don Domanski, Wolf-Ladder Judith Fitzgerald, Rapturous Chronicles Patrick Lane, Mortal Remains Anne Michaels, Miner's Pond
Drama	Joan MacLeod, Amigo's Blue Guitar	Sally Clark, The Trial of Judith K. Don Druick, Where is Kabuki? Linda Griffiths, The Darling Family Daniel David Moses, Coyote City
Children's literature	Sarah Ellis, Pick-Up Sticks	Martha Brooks, Two Moons in August Roch Carrier, A Happy New Year's Day Jean Little, Stars Come Out Within Monty Reid, The Last Great Dinosaurs
Children's illustration	Joanne Fitzgerald, Doctor Kiss Says Yes	Kady MacDonald Denton, The Travelling Musicians Michèle Lemieux, Peter and the Wolf Gilles Pelletier, A Happy New Year's Day Jacqueline White, Coyote Winter
French to English translation	Albert W. Halsall, A Dictionary of Literary Devices: Gradus, A-Z (Bernard Dupriez, Gradus : Les procédés littéraires)	Linda Gaboriau, Lilies, or the Revival of a Romantic Drama (Michel Marc Bouchard, Les feluettes) Peter Keating, Physics and the Rise of Scientific Research in Canada (Yves Gingras, Les origines de la recherche scientifique au Canada : le cas des physiciens) Patricia Smart and Dorothy Howard, The Diary of André Laurendeau (André Laurendeau, Journal tenu pendant la Commission royale d’enquête sur le bilinguisme et le biculturalisme)

French

Category	Winner	Nominated
Fiction	André Brochu, La croix du Nord	Flora Balzano, Soigne ta chute Georges-Hébert Germain, Christophe Colomb: Naufrage sur les côtes du paradis Hans-Jürgen Greif, L'Autre Pandore Hélène Rioux, Les Miroirs d'Éléonore
Non-fiction	Bernard Arcand, Le Jaguar et le Tamanoir	Betty Bednarski, Autour de Ferron : littérature, traduction, altérité Guy Bourgeault, L'Éthique et le droit : face aux nouvelles technologies biomédicales Jacques Jaffelin, Le Promeneur d'Einstein Robert Major, Jean Rivard ou l'art de réussir: idéologies et utopie dans l'oeuvre d'Antoine Gérin-Lajoie
Poetry	Madeleine Gagnon, Chant pour un Québec lointain	Claude Beausoleil, Une certaine fin de siècle François Charron, L'Intraduisible amour Herménégilde Chiasson, Vous Rachel Leclerc Les vies frontalières
Drama	Gilbert Dupuis, Mon oncle Marcel qui vague vague près du métro Berri	Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, La maison cassée Michel Marc Bouchard, L'Histoire de l'oie Dominic Champagne, La répétition Suzanne Lebeau, Conte du jour et de la nuit
Children's literature	François Gravel, Deux heures et demie avant Jasmine	Ginette Anfousse, Un terrible secret Johanne Mercier, L'Été des autres Daniel Sernine, Quatre destins
Children's illustration	Sheldon Cohen, Un champion	Stéphane Poulin, Un voyage pour deux : contes et mensonges de mon enfance
English to French translation	Jean-Paul Sainte-Marie and Brigitte Chabert Hacikyan, Les Enfants d'Aataentsic: l'histoire du peuple huron (Bruce Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660)	Jean Antonin Billard and Christine Le Boeuf, Orages électriques (David Homel, Electrical Storms) Brigitte Chabert Hacikyan, Le Canada au temps des aventuriers (Robert McGhee, Canada Rediscovered) Michèle Marineau, Sur le rivage (Lucy Maud Montgomery, Along the Shore) Colette Tonge, Un heureux canular (Robertson Davies, Leaven of Malice)

References