The finalists for the Governor General’s Awards, Canada's oldest and most prestigious literary awards, were revealed on Tuesday, October 21. At Goose Lane Editions, we’re beyond thrilled to see 10:10 by Michael Trussler and Island by Douglas Walbourne-Gough, both published under the icehouse poetry imprint, appear on the five-book shortlist for the 2025 Governor-General’s Award for Poetry.
Centred around the Newfoundland Mi'kmaq experience in the wake of the controversial Qalipu First Nation enrolment process, Island wades through the fracture and mistrust that continues to linger in many communities. Walbourne-Gough’s narrative poems trace the formation of identity, not through status documentation, but through its deeper roots in childhood memories, family, spirituality, and dreams. Island reckons with an often-ignored, yet persistent, effect of colonialism — fractured identities.
Douglas Walbourne-Gough is a poet and mixed/adopted status member of the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation from Elmastukwek (the Bay of Islands), Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). His poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including Best Canadian Poetry in English, Grain, and the Fiddlehead, and has won the Riddle Fence Poetry Prize.
Walbourne-Gough’s debut collection, Crow Gulch, won the E.J. Pratt Poetry Award. It was also a finalist for NL Reads, the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, and the Raymond Souster Award, and was longlisted for First Nations Communities READ. Island is his second book of poetry. It won the 2025 J. M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award and was longlisted for First Nations Communities READ.
Escaping from the evils of the modern world into the vivid colours of a bird’s plumage, Michael Trussler’s 10:10 plunges into the mystery and horror of living at the beginning of the Anthropocene. How can there be both terrible violence and extraordinary beauty in the world? How can birdwatching coexist with genocide? How can nature be loved and destroyed all at once? From lyrics to prose, high art to emails, Trussler sifts through the shards of society to seek refuge in the beauty and strangeness of words, the beguiling richness of images, the intensity of the natural world.
Michael Trussler’s work engages with the beauty and violence of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from a neurodivergent, fluid perspective. His writing encompasses several genres and modes of expression, ranging from the lyrical to the avant-garde. Trussler teaches English at the University of Regina and is the author of seven books, including 10:10; The History Forest, winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry; the short fiction collection, Encounters, winner of the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award; and a memoir entitled The Sunday Book, which won the Saskatchewan Book Award in both the Non-Fiction and City of Regina categories. Deeply compelled by the natural world, Trussler hikes in the Canadian Rockies at every opportunity.
The winners of this year’s $25,000 prizes will be announced on Thursday, November 6. Stay up to date on all information at ggbooks.ca
Goose Lane Editions is Canada’s oldest independent publisher. Founded in Fredericton in 1954 as Fiddlehead Poetry Books, the company is a force in Canada’s publishing landscape. Whether publishing homegrown Canadian fiction, singular collections of poetry, books on contemporary art, or courageous volumes on environmental issues and global politics, Goose Lane Editions provides book lovers with great reads that inspire, spur conversation, and stimulate minds.
