Each winner of the 1982 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.

English Language

Fiction

Winner:

• Guy Vanderhaeghe, Man Descending

Other Finalists:

• Alice Munro, The Moons of Jupiter
• Chris Scott , Antichthon

Poetry

Winner:

• Phyllis Webb, The Vision Tree: Selected Poems

Other Finalists:

• Robert Bringhurst, The Beauty of the Weapons: Selected Poems 1972-1982
• Barry Dempster, Fables for Isolated Men
• Diane Keating , No Birds or Flowers

Drama

Winner:

• John Gray , Billy Bishop Goes to War

Other Finalists:

• Lawrence Jeffery , Clay
• Betty Lambert , Jennie's Story

Non-fiction

Winner:

• Christopher Moore , Louisbourg Portraits: Life in an Eighteenth- Century Garrison Town

Other Finalists:

• Northrop Frye, The Great Code: The Bible and Literature
• Christina McCall-Newman , Grits: An Intimate Portrait of The Liberal Party

French Language

Fiction

Winner:

• Roger Fournier , Le cercle des arènes

Other Finalists:

• Gaëtan Brulotte , Le surveillant
• Louis Caron , Les fils de la liberté II: La corne de brume
• Anne Hébert, Les fous de Bassan

Poetry

Winner:

• Michel Savard , Forages

Other Finalist:

• Alphonse Piché , Dernier profil

Drama

Winner:

• Réjean Ducharme, Ha ha! ...

Other Finalists:

• Marie Laberge , Avec l'hiver qui s'en vient
• Léo Lévesque , ... Quand j'y ai dit ça ... à parti à rire
• Jovette Marchessault , La terre est trop courte, Violette Leduc

Non-fiction

Winner:

• Maurice Lagueux , Le marxisme des années soixante: une saison dans l'histoire de la pensée critique

Other Finalist:

• Flore Dupriez , La condition féminine et les Pères de l'Église latine

Other Governor General's Awards: