The finalists for this year’s Governor General’s Literary Awards were announced October 14, and the list of English-language nominees features an impressive contingent from B.C. The fiction category alone recognizes New Westminster’s Annabel Lyon, for The Golden Mean; former Cranbrookian Kate Pullinger, for The Mistress of Nothing; and Victoria’s Deborah Willis, for Vanishing and Other Stories. That’s three out of five finalists in the category—four out of five if you count part-time Comox resident Alice Munro, who’s on the list for her collection Too Much Happiness.

Elsewhere, Brentwood Bay’s Philip Kevin Paul and North Vancouver’s David Zieroth are up for the poetry award, for Little Hunger and The Fly in Autumn, respectively. Kevin Loring of Vancouver is listed in the drama category for Where the Blood Mixes, as is Victoria’s Joan MacLeod for her play Another Home Invasion. Shelley Hrdlitschka of North Vancouver is a nominee in the children’s literature (text) category, for Sister Wife, along with Robin Stevenson of Victoria, for A Thousand Shades of Blue. Finally, Victoria’s Rachel Berman and her Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine Frog are among the finalists in the category covering children’s-lit illustration.

The winners will be named at a ceremony in Montreal on November 17.