THEATRE NEWS: 2010 GG Awards announced
17 Nov'10

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI AGENCY

Robert Chafe, a playwright from St. John's, Nfld., has beat out a brace of Toronto playwrights -- including Michael Healey and Judith Thompson -- for the coveted Governor General's Literary Award for English-language drama with his stage adaptation of Michael Crummy's short story, AFTERIMAGE.

Winners of the 2010 GG's were announced yesterday in Montreal. They include: Regina's Dianne Warren, for English-language fiction for Cool Water; Saskatoon's David Paquet for English-language non-fiction for Lakeland: Journeys Into the Soul of Canada; Cobourg, Ont.'s Richard Green for English-language poetry for Boxing the Compass; Montreal's David Paquet for French-language drama, for PORC-EPIC; Longueuil, Que.'s Kim Thuy for French-language fiction, for Ru; Saint-Raphael, Que.'s Michel Lavoie for French-language non-fiction for C'est ma seigneurie que je reclame: la lutte des Hurons de Lorette pour le seigneurie de Sillery, 1650-1900; Montreal's Danielle Fournier for French-language poetry for effleures de lumière.

Awards for translation went to Montreal's Linda Gaboriau for FORESTS, her English-language translation of Wajdi Mouawad's Forets and to Montreal's Sophie Voillot, for LE CAFARD, her French-language translation of Rawi Hage's novel Cockroach.

In children's lit, where prizes are awarded for both text and illustration, the text prizes went to Richmond, B.C.'s Wendy Phillips, the writer of Fishtailing, and Montreal's Elise Turcotte, writer of Rose: derrière le rideau de la folie, while the illustrators' prizes went to Los Angeles's Jon Klassen for Cats' Night Out and Montreal's Daniel Sylvestre for Rose: derrière le rideau de la folie, marking only the second time in the awards' history that both text and illustration prizes have been won by the same work.

All winners will receive a cash purse in the amount of $25,000 when they are honoured at ceremonies at Rideau Hall on Nov. 15, hosted by the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada.