Two Guelph authors have been selected as 2020 recipients of the Governor General’s Literary Award.
Madhur Anand and Eric Walters were chosen from 70 finalists across 14 categories. They are both 2020 English language winners.
Anand’s book This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart: A Memoir in Halves won in the non-fiction category. A first-time finalist and winner, Anand wrote an experimental memoir about immigration and generational storytelling where the story is divided in two parts. The first half of the book focuses on the author’s mother and father perspective’s before the author shares their personal experiences in the second half. Anand is a professor at the University of Guelph School of Environmental Sciences. She is also an ecologist and poet.
Walters' book The King of Jam Sandwiches won the young people’s literature - text category. Inspired in part from his own life, the story focuses on a 13-year-old boy named Robbie and his father. The story touches on poverty and mental illness, as the boy is worried about being placed in foster care if someone were to find out about his father, who leaves him alone for long periods and wakes him up to talk about dying. Walters has been writing books since 1994, and has written more than 100 children’s books.
The list of winners was revealed by the Canadian Council for the Arts on Tuesday following a delay due to COVID-19. The 2021 Governor General finalists and winners will be announced this fall.
As winners, Anand and Walters will each receive $25,000 and each of their publishing companies receive $3,000.
Thomas King, a Guelph author and previous Governor General winner, was a finalist for his book Indians on Vacation.
