Transatlantic is excited to congratulate Caroline Pignat whose novel THE GOSPEL TRUTH (Red Deer Press) has won the the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature(Text)!
The Jury Citation:
“Caroline Pignat’s THE GOSPEL TRUTH is the powerful and poignant story of 16-year-old Phoebe, a slave girl in 1858 Virginia. Written in lyrical and elegant free verse, it is an unflinching look at the brutality of slavery and Phoebe’s struggle for freedom and truth. Ultimately, this is a story of hope.”
Born in Ireland and raised in Ottawa, Caroline Pignat won her first Governor General’s Award for her novel GREENER GRASS, part of the historical fiction series that also includes WILD GEESE and TIMBER WOLF. Her debut novel, EGGHEAD, garnered the first of her two Red Maple Honour Book Awards. Caroline’s work has been named a Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book of the Year Honour Book and been shortlisted for many other awards, including the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction and the IODE Violet Downey Book Award.
Each year, the Canada Council for the Arts honours the best in Canadian literature with its Governor General’s Literary Awards (the GGs). As Canada’s national literary awards, the GGs represent the rich diversity of Canadian literature. For each category, a peer assessment committee, comprised of fellow authors, translators and illustrators, makes the final selection. Each GG winner receives $25,000; each nonwinning finalist receives $1,000. The publisher of each winning book receives $3,000 to help promote the book.