Each winner of the 1991 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit received $10 000 dollars and a medal from the Governor General of Canada. The winners were selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.

English Language

Fiction

Winner:

• Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey

Other Finalists:

• Margaret Atwood, Wilderness Tips
• Don Dickinson , Blue Husbands
• Douglas Glover , A Guide to Animal Behaviour
• Terry Griggs , Quickening

Poetry

Winner:

• Don McKay, Night Field

Other Finalists:

• Don Domanski, Wolf-Ladder
• Judith Fitzgerald, Rapturous Chronicles
• Patrick Lane, Mortal Remains
• Anne Michaels, Miner's Pond

Drama

Winner:

• Joan MacLeod , Amigo's Blue Guitar

Other Finalists:

• Sally Clark , The Trial of Judith K.
• Don Druick , Where is Kabuki? Don Druick
• Linda Griffiths , The Darling Family
• Daniel David Moses, Coyote City

Non-fiction

Winner:

• Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo , Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past

Other Finalists:

• Northrop Frye, Words With Power
• Kristjana Gunnars , Zero Hour
• D.L. MacDonald , Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography of the Author of "The Vampyre"
• Rosemary Sullivan , By Heart: Elizabeth Smart, A Life

Children's Literature - Text

Winner:

• Sarah Ellis , Pick-Up Sticks

Other Finalists:

• Martha Brooks , Two Moons in August
• Roch Carrier, A Happy New Year's Day
• Jean Little , Stars Come Out Within
• Monty Reid , The Last Great Dinosaurs

Children's Literature - Illustration

Winner:

• Joanne Fitzgerald , Doctor Kiss Says Yes

Other Finalists:

• Kady MacDonald Denton , The Travelling Musicians
• Michèle Lemieux , Peter and the Wolf
• Gilles Pelletier , A Happy New Year's Day
• Jacquelinne White , Coyote Winter

Translation (from French to English)

Winner:

• Albert W. Halsall , A Dictionary of Literary Devices: Gradus, A-Z

Other Finalists:

• Linda Gaboriau, Lilies or the Revival of a Romantic Drama
• Peter Keating , Physics and the Rise of Scientific Research in Canada
• Patricia Smart and Dorothy Howard , The Diary of André Laurendeau

French Language

Fiction

Winner:

• André Brochu , La croix du Nord

Other Finalists:

• Flora Balzano , Soigne ta chute
• Georges-Hébert Germain , Christophe Colomb: Naufrage sur les côtes du paradis
• Hans-Jürgen Greif , L'Autre Pandore
• Hélène Rioux , Les Miroirs d'Éléonore

Poetry

Winner:

• Madeleine Gagnon , Chant pour un Québec lointain

Other Finalists:

• Claude Beausoleil , Une certaine fin de siècle
• François Charron , L'Intraduisible amour
• Herménégilde Chiasson, Vous
• Rachel Leclerc Les vies frontalières

Drama

Winner:

• Gilbert Dupuis , Mon oncle Marcel qui vague vague près du métro Berri

Other Finalists:

• Victor-Lévy Beaulieu , La maison cassée
• Michel Marc Bouchard, L'Histoire de l'oie
• Dominic Champagne , La répétition
• Suzanne Lebeau , Conte du jour et de la nuit

Non-fiction

Winner:

• Bernard Arcand , Le Jaguar et le Tamanoir

Other Finalists:

• Betty Bednarski , Autour de Ferron : littérature, traduction, altérité
• Guy Bourgeault , L'Éthique et le droit : face aux nouvelles technologies biomédicales
• Jacques Jaffelin , Le Promeneur d'Einstein
• Robert Major , Jean Rivard ou l'art de réussir: idéologies et utopie dans l'oeuvre d'Antoine Gérin-Lajoie

Children's Literature - Text

Winner:

• François Gravel , Deux heures et demie avant Jasmine

Other Finalists:

• Ginette Anfousse , Un terrible secret
• Johanne Mercier , L'Été des autres
• Daniel Sernine , Quatre destins

Children's Literature - Illustration

Winner:

• Sheldon Cohen , Un champion

Other Finalist:

• Stéphane Poulin , Un voyage pour deux : contes et mensonges de mon enfance

Translation (from English to French)

Winner:

• Jean-Paul Sainte-Marie and Brigitte Chabert Hacikyan , Les Enfants d'Aataentsic: l'histoire du peuple huron

Other Finalists:

• Jean-Antonin Billard and Christine Le Boeuf , Orages électriques
• Brigitte Chabert Hacikyan , Le Canada au temps des aventuriers
• Michèle Marineau , Sur le rivage
• Colette Tonge , Un heureux canular

Other Governor General's Awards: