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Contemporary Canadian writers have won prestigious awards and honours at home and abroad. Among the most publicized of these events was Prix Goncourt awarded to Antonine Maillet for Pélagie-la-Charette.

​Bruce Mau, designer, author, innovator (born 25 October 1959 in Greater Sudbury, ON).

​Lucie Pagé, Québécoise journalist, director, writer (born 29 November 1961 in Greenwood, Nova Scotia).

Kathleen Coleman, journalist, war correspondent (born Catherine Ferguson on 20 February 1856 in Castleblakeney, Ireland; died 16 May 1915 in Hamilton, Ontario).

Lucy Maud Montgomery, OBE, writer (born 30 November 1874 in Clifton (now New London), PEI; died 24 April 1942 in Toronto, ON). Lucy Maud Montgomery is arguably Canada’s most widely read author. Her first novel, Anne of Green Gables (1908), became an instant best-seller. It has remained in print for more than a century, making the character of Anne Shirley a mythic icon of Canadian culture. Montgomery produced more than 500 short stories, 21 novels, two poetry collections, and numerous journal and essay anthologies. Her body of work has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide. Anne of Green Gables alone has been translated into at least 36 languages as well as braille. It has been adapted dozens of times in various mediums. Montgomery was named an Officer of both the Order of the British Empire and the Literary and Artistic Institute of France. She was the first Canadian woman to be made a member of the British Royal Society of Arts and she was declared a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.

Afua (Ava Pamela) Cooper, educator, historian, performance artist, poet (born 8 November 1957 in the Whithorn district of Westmoreland, Jamaica), is considered one of the most influential and pioneering voices in the Canadian dub poetry and spoken word movement. Her poems are published in numerous regional, national and international journals and anthologies. Afua Cooper also has CDs of her performances that make her work well known to the global community. In addition to her renown as a performance artist, she is an internationally-ranked historian. She has taught Caribbean cultural studies, history, women's studies and Black studies at Ryerson and York universities, at the University of Toronto and at Dalhousie University.

Hannah Moscovitch, playwright (born 5 June 1978 in Ottawa, ON). Hannah Moscovitch is one of Canada’s most produced and prominent contemporary playwrights. Her plays tackle complex and often politically charged issues and have won multiple Dora Awards. Moscovitch has also been nominated for the Carol Bolt Award, the Toronto Arts Council Foundation Emerging Artist Award, the K.M. Hunter Award, and the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She is the first playwright to win a Trillium Book Award and the first Canadian woman to win a Windham–Campbell Literature Prize, a $150,000 award from Yale University. She also won a 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award for her drama Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes.

Elizabeth Smart, writer (born 27 December 1913 in Ottawa, ON; died 4 March 1986 in London, England). In 1945, a slim work with a long title — By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept — was published in England by Elizabeth Smart, an unknown Canadian writer living in London. The book was based on Smart’s love affair with the poet George Barker, and Smart’s mother used her influence with Prime Minister Mackenzie King to have the book banned from Canada. However, it was hailed as a masterpiece of poetic prose when it was later republished in paperback. In 2021, Marie Frankland’s French translation of Smart’s The Collected Poems won a Governor General’s Literary Award.  

Marie-Claire Blais, CC, OC, MSRC, novelist, dramatist and poet (born 5 October 1939 in Quebec City, QC; died 30 November 2021 in Key West, Florida). Among the best known and most studied of Canadian authors, she has close to 50 works to her name. A proud activist in support of the francophonie, she explores violence, rebellion and hate, and other themes through her work.

Bonnie Devine, artist, writer, professor (born 12 April 1952 in Toronto, ON). A member of the Serpent River First Nation, Bonnie Devine is a prominent Ojibwe artist and writer. She has applied Ojibwe mythology and storytelling traditions to drawing, painting, sculpture, site-specific interventions, performance and video. She held a solo exhibition, The Tecumseh Papers, at the Art Gallery of Windsor in 2013. She was also featured with other Indigenous artists in Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes at the Art Gallery of Ontario. She is an Associate Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University and is the founding chair of the school’s Indigenous Visual Culture Program. She received a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2021.

Lise Payette (née Ouimet), OQ, broadcaster, politician, writer and feminist activist (born 29 August 1931 in Verdun, Quebec; died 5 September 2018). A trailblazer in provincial politics, Payette was among the first women to sit in Quebec’s National Assembly. Prior to her 1976 election under the Parti Québécois banner, she pursued a successful career as a radio and television host with Radio-Canada. In 1979, she became the first minister of state for the Status of Women and oversaw a major family law reform that would significantly alter the Civil Code.

Allan Fotheringham (born Murray Allan Scott), columnist, author, humourist (born 31 August 1932 in Hearne, SK; died 19 August 2020 in Toronto, ON). Allan Fotheringham was Canada's best-read political columnist. Combining a vivid comic sense with the instincts of a superb reporter, Fotheringham produced some of the funniest, most penetrating political commentary of his generation.

Napoléon Aubin (baptized Aimé-Nicolas), editor, journalist, printer, poet, scientist, conductor and composer (born 9 November 1812 in Chêne-Bougeries, suburb of Geneva, Switzerland; died 12 June 1890 in Montréal, Québec).

Dany Laferrière, né Windson Kléber, novelist, essayist, poet and journalist (born 13 April 1953 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti). Winner of the prestigious Prix Medicis and the first Haitian, Canadian and Québécois to be elected to the Académie française, Laferrière has established himself as one of the premiere chroniclers of the immigrant experience and one of the finest novelists of his generation.

Priscila Uppal, FRSC, poet, novelist, playwright, professor (born 30 October 1974 in Ottawa, ON; died 5 September 2018 in Toronto, ON). Dubbed “Canada’s coolest poet,” Priscila Uppal was a politically pointed voice in contemporary Canadian poetry. Her writing addressed issues surrounding women, violence, sexuality, culture, religion, illness and loss. Her works were shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and a Governor General’s Literary Award. She was named the Canadian Athletes Now Fund poet-in-residence for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics, and the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in London, England. She also taught creative writing and English literature at York University.

Aziz Ahmad, novelist, short story writer, critic, translator, historian (born 11 November 1914 in Hyderabad Deccan [present-day India]; died 16 December 1978 in Toronto, ON).

Jack Lawrence Granatstein, OC, historian, professor (born 21 May 1939 in Toronto, Ontario). One of the most prolific Canadian historians of his generation, Granatstein has written widely on Canadian history and current affairs. A professor of history until his retirement in 1995, Granatstein later became director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum from 1998-2000. He has written over 60 books and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Simu Liu, actor, writer, director, producer, stuntman, model (born 19 April 1989 in Harbin, China). Simu Liu is best known for his role as Shang-Chi, Marvel’s first Asian superhero, and for his role as Jung Kim on the hit CBC sitcom Kim’s Convenience. A former stuntman and model who also produces his own projects, the Chinese Canadian Liu has also become an advocate for equal race representation in the entertainment industry. He was named one of the top 500 entertainment business leaders of 2021 by Variety and one of the 100 most influential people of 2022 by Time magazine.

Edward Alexander Partridge, farmer, farm leader, author (b at Whites' Corners [Dalston] near Barrie, Canada W 5 Nov 1862; d at Victoria 3 Aug 1931).

Gordon Edward Pinsent, CC, FRSC, actor, writer, director (born 12 July 1930 in Grand Falls, NL; died 25 February 2023). A cultural icon in his native Newfoundland, Gordon Pinsent was a fixture in Canadian film, theatre and television for more than 60 years. Often described as a Renaissance man, the former soldier and noted painter rose to prominence as the lead in CBC-TV’s Quentin Durgens, M.P. (1966–69). He adapted two of his novels, The Rowdyman and John and the Missus, to the big screen, starring in both and directing the latter. His more than 150 credits as an actor include the movies The Shipping News (2001), Away from Her (2006) and The Grand Seduction (2013), as well as the TV series Street Legal, Due South, The Red Green Show and Republic of Doyle. A Companion of the Order of Canada and an inductee to Canada’s Walk of Fame, Pinsent won a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 2004 and numerous lifetime achievement awards.