MONTREAL — Dianne Warren was keenly aware of the sterotypes surrounding westerners when she crafted her debut novel Cool Water, which won the Governor General’s fiction prize on Tuesday.
“I’ve always thought about how we represent the West in fiction,” said Warren, who now lives in Regina but hails from Swift Current, Sask., after she picked up her award at a ceremony in Montreal.
“I’ve been working on this book for a long time. The book has evolved as things have changed in southern Saskatchewan and it was important for me to tell a contemporary story about what is happening with life in Saskatchewan.”
She said the province “is changing like crazy these days.”
The jury described her book about the daily lives of tiny Juliet, Sask., as an “exquisitely constructed” novel.
In its praise, the Governor General’s fiction jury said Warren “makes each moment shine” and that “her narrative flows seamlessly from character to character, all stunningly depicted.”
Warren, 50, is the author of several plays and short story collections. Her play Serpent in the Night Sky was shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award for drama in 1992. In 2004 she won the Marian Engel Award for a female writer in mid-career.
Cool Water was also longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Warren said she was stunned when she found out she had won, adding that literary awards have become a “hugely important” part of getting books to readers.
”The book market is so competitive and I think that the buyers have gotten used to the awards stickers and they look for them in book stores. I think it’s extremely important.“
Kathleen Winter’s Annabel had also been in the running for the Governor General’s fiction prize.
The tale of a hermaphrodite growing up in Newfoundland, Winter’s book was the only title to be nominated for all three major Canadian literary prizes this fall. But it failed to win any of them.
Allan Casey, a journalist from Saskatoon, won the Governor General’s Award for non-fiction for Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada, an ode to the country’s freshwater systems.
“Foolishly I tackled the second-largest country in the world and a sprawling topic, both literally and figuratively,” he said. “It took parts of five years to work on it. It was kind of foolishly ambitious but nice to have done.”
He said he was “overwhelmed” by his ”delightful” win.
“I’m speechless,” he said. “It’s pretty tough to get a writer in that position.”
Casey described his book as a celebration of lakes and the relationship that people have with them. However, he’s concerned that affluent times have made the lakeshore more of a perk for the wealthy than for everybody.
He says his desire to write the book came from a deep personal commitment to a Saskatchewan lake he discovered as a child on family outings to a cabin on its shores.
“My memory of it is as a wild space,” he said. “Now it’s very much a tamed space, very much a manicured, landscaped, lawn-turf kind of place. It never used to be any of those kinds of things.”
Casey said Canadians are trying to treat their lakes well.
“Some of the problems, they’re created by well-meant people. They love lakes, they want to bring their kids to them but our affluence has skipped ahead of our environmental awareness.”
The Governor General’s award for poetry, meanwhile, was won by Richard Greene of Cobourg, Ont., for “Boxing the Compass.”
Newfoundlander Robert Chafe picked up the drama prize for “Afterimage.”
Wendy Phillips of Richmond, B.C., won in the children’s literature text category while Jon Klassen, who now lives in Los Angeles but is a native of Niagara Falls, Ont., took the prize for illustration in the children’s literature category for “Cat’s Night Out.”
Linda Gaboriau took home the translation prize for ”Forests.”
“This year’s recipients are excellent representatives of the talent and immense creativity of Canadian writers, illustrators and translators,” Gov. Gen David Johnston said in a statement.
“I would like to offer my sincerest congratulations to these artists, people who — through their passion — ignite our love of reading with every new book.”
Johnston will present the awards on Nov. 25 during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.
A total of 70 books were finalists for the Governor General’s awards, which are funded and administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Each winner receives $25,000 and a special leather-bound copy of his or her book.
The publisher of each winning book gets $3,000 to support promotional activities, while non-winning finalists will each receive $1,000.
The finalists in each category are chosen by peer assessment committees appointed by the Canada Council.