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.
| width=15% | Category | width=30% | Winner | width=55% | Nominated |
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| Fiction | Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey |
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| Non-fiction | Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo, Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past |
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| Poetry | Don McKay, Night Field |
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| Drama | Joan MacLeod, Amigo's Blue Guitar |
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| Children's literature | Sarah Ellis, Pick-Up Sticks |
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| Children's illustration | Joanne Fitzgerald, Doctor Kiss Says Yes |
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| French to English translation | Albert W. Halsall, A Dictionary of Literary Devices: Gradus, A-Z (Bernard Dupriez, Gradus : Les procédés littéraires) |
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| width=15% | Category | width=30% | Winner | width=55% | Nominated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fiction | André Brochu, La croix du Nord |
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| Non-fiction | Bernard Arcand, Le Jaguar et le Tamanoir |
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| Poetry | Madeleine Gagnon, Chant pour un Québec lointain |
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| Drama | Gilbert Dupuis, Mon oncle Marcel qui vague vague près du métro Berri |
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| Children's literature | François Gravel, Deux heures et demie avant Jasmine |
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| Children's illustration | Sheldon Cohen, Un champion |
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| 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) |
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