A dozen Torontonians are amongst the finalists for the 75th Governor General's Literary Awards.

By Meg Campbell

More than a few Toronto authors and illustrators are celebrating today after finding their names on the list of 68 finalists for the 2011 Governor General’s Literary Awards. Peer-assessment committees considered 1,664 submissions this year, and of those selected as finalists, 12 are Toronto’s own.

In the high-profile fiction category, David Bezmozgis, gets a nod for The Free World, which is also on the 2011 Giller Prize shortlist. Michael Boughn’s impressively titled Cosmographia: A Post-Lucretian Faux Micro-Epic is a finalist in the poetry category, and, for drama, four of the five finalists are Toronto-based: Brendan Gall for Minor Complications: Two Plays, Jonathan Garfinkel for House of Many Tongues, Erin Shields for If We Were Birds, and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard for Gas Girls.

Rounding out the list of making-Toronto-proud finalists are:

• Richard Gwyn for Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times, Volume Two: 1867-1891, in the non-fiction category;
• Christopher Moore’s From Then to Now: A Short History of the World and Kenneth Oppel’s This Dark Endeavour for children’s literature — text;
• Frank Viva’s Along a Long Road and Cybèle Young’s Ten Birds for children’s literature — illustration;
• And Shea Chang’s work in Tarentelle for children’s literature — illustration (French language).

The Canada Council for the Arts will announce the winners of this year’s awards, the 75th annual, at Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre on November 15, and Governor General David Johnston will present the awards at a ceremony on November 24 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. The winners in each category get $25,000 and a specially bound copy of their book, and $3,000 goes to the publisher of each winning book to put towards promotion. Non-winning finalists receive $1,000.