6 Canadians write stories of reflection in this series from the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award winners
A special series presented in partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts
The English-language books that won the 2024 Governor General's Literary Awards demonstrate how stories help us reflect on our lives, understand ourselves more deeply and see the world in new ways.
CBC Books asked the winners to further explore the power of reflection in original works. The special series, centred around the theme of mirrors, challenges how we see ourselves and our society — unearthing hidden truths, exploring alternative identities and blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.
Canadian authors Li Charmaine Anne, Caleigh Crow, Katia Grubisic, Niigaanwewidam Sinclair, Todd Stewart and Chimwemwe Undi have all delivered an original piece of writing — from poetry to nonfiction to short story — inspired by this theme.
This special series is presented in partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts. CBC's Radio One will host an episode featuring participants from this original series.
Read on for links to these pieces.
Rock Star Dreaming and Comfortable Shoes by Li Charmaine Anne
Li Charmaine Anne's essay invites us to see how the hobbies we choose, or don't choose, are more than just activities we enjoy — they are tied to our identity and how we want to be seen.
Looking back, I wonder what exactly I was aspiring to. I assume it was a better, "cooler," more punk-rock version of who I felt obligated to be.- From Rock Star Dreaming and Comfortable Shoes by Li Charmaine Anne
"[It's] a personal essay about the urge to define yourself through hobbies. We often associate certain hobbies with certain personalities, and young people like trying different hobbies to 'try on' different identities.
"Hobbies can be seen as 'mirrors' we use to assess who we are (or at least who we want to appear as). I also loosely explore this theme in my book's Author's Note section, so I think it ties in nicely," Li Charmaine Anne wrote.
Li Charmaine Anne's YA novel Crash Landing won the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text.
Li Charmaine Anne is a writer with a BFA from the University of British Columbia in creative writing and English literature. Crash Landing is their debut novel.
Old Little Sister by Caleigh Crow
Caleigh Crow wrote a story featuring a literal mirror that's not only 20 feet tall, but also used in a way you might not expect.
In an instant, the square was illuminated. The light was pale, crooked, and had vestigial colours at the edges.- From Old Little Sister by Caleigh Crow
Crow said she was captivated by a small town in the Italian Alps, where a giant mirror on the mountainside reflects sunlight into the town square. For 83 days each winter, the town is shrouded in darkness.
Inspired by their journey from shadow to light, Crow created her original work of evocative prose. When the mirror was unveiled, she imagined the townsfolk's reactions.
Crow won the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for drama for the play There Is Violence and There Is Righteous Violence and There Is Death, or the Born-Again Crow.
Crow is a queer Métis theatre artist from northeast Calgary. She is the co-founder and artistic lead of Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre.
Volja and the Mountain by Katia Grubisic
Katia Grubisic wrote a story about a woman fleeing over a mountain to escape her captors. When she finally breaks free, she's faced with a new challenge — her old self is gone, and she doesn't recognize who she is anymore.
Imagine the miracle of water in its absence. The brook ran clean, making its own secret way down the mountain, singing its freedom easily.- From Volja and the Mountain by Katia Grubisic
"Volja and the Mountain is about a traveller escaping over a mountain. As she climbs, she sheds words and objects until she reaches a cabin where she might be able to reinvent herself.
"The piece explores themes of exile, departure and identity, and the aesthetic is a kind of brutalist magic realism," Grubisic wrote.
Grubisic won the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for French-to-English translation for Nights Too Short to Dance, a novel written by Marie-Claire Blais and translated by Grubisic.
Grubisic is a writer, editor and translator. She has been a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for translation and the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Her collection of poems What if red ran out won the Gerald Lampert award for best first book.
Turtle Island by Niigaanwewidam (Niigaan) Sinclair
Niigaan Sinclair takes us back to those childhood moments when you first realize the world isn't as simple as you thought. In his story, he places us in the shoes of a child discovering that Canada is home to peoples and cultures whose histories far predate confederation.
You see hundreds of nations you never knew existed. Thousands of cultures. Millions of years. Looking up, the world around looks different.- From Turtle Island by Niigaanwewidam Sinclair
"[It's] how Canadians have been conditioned (in education, etc) to "see" (or, rather, not see) one another — which creates a self-fulfilling and very self-centred prophecy," Sinclair wrote.
Sinclair won the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction for Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre.
Sinclair is an Anishinaabe (St. Peter's/Little Peguis) thinker and assistant professor of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba. He has written for The Exile Edition of Native Canadian Fiction and Drama, The Guardian and CBC Books and is a regular contributor on APTN, CTV and CBC News. Sinclair is also the editor of The Debwe Series and the author and co-editor of award-winning Manitowapow and Centering Anishinaabeg Studies.
3 Reflections of a Montreal Winter by Todd Stewart
In a series of three short stories, Todd Stewart reflects on his life, finding purpose and meaning through a balance of connecting with himself and the people around him — family, friends, colleagues, neighbours and even strangers.
It's the best kind of mirror, the kind where you don't look at yourself, but you can still listen.- From 3 Reflections of a Montreal Winter by Todd Stewart
"I will write a diary entry-type narrative. Three separate — not necessarily connected — reflections, in which one entry reflects on creative practice, skating outdoors, and the infinity room at a museum.
"I'm writing less specifically about connecting with the children's book world and more about the activities that have me feeling a more profound connection to myself and the world around me (as noted in the first sentence of my text). So, I bring a little more reflection of how reading children's books is part of this," Stewart wrote.
Stewart won the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — illustrated books for Skating Wild on an Inland Sea, written by Jean E. Pendziwol and illustrated by Stewart.
Stewart is a Montreal-based illustrator and printmaker. His picture book The Wind in the Trees (Quand le vent souffle), was a nominated for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award and the Governor General's Literary Award.
The First Year by Chimwemwe Undi
Undi wrote a poem exploring the importance of looking in the rear-view mirror, reminding us that our history, the people we've encountered and our past experiences all shape who we are today.
The word apartheid is in Afrikaans so when I say it, it reminds me what it did.- From The First Year by Chimwemwe Undi
"The theme of mirrors conjured for me the experience of looking at yourself in the mirror and noticing more clearly something that was behind you.
"From there, I was drawn back to a pre-existing preoccupation of mine, which is the role that personal, family, and world history have on a person's ability or willingness to contend with the world as it is today," Undi wrote.
Undi won the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry for Scientific Marvel.
Undi is a Winnipeg-based poet, editor and lawyer. She was recently announced as Canada's 11th parliamentary poet laureate and was the Winnipeg Poet Laureate for 2023 and 2024. Undi was longlisted for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize. She won the 2022 John Hirsch Emerging Writer Award from the Manitoba Book Awards and her work can be found in Brick, Border Crossings, Canadian Literature and BBC World, among others.
