Canadian writer Dany Laferrière poses during the Monde des livres (World of books) meeting in Paris in 2009. He has just been nominated for a Governor General's Award for French-language fiction. (Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)Emma Donoghue, Judith Thompson, Ian Brown and Dany Laferrière are among the established Canadian writers in the running for the 2010 Governor General's Literary Awards.

The Canada Council for the Arts, which administers the prestigious awards, announced the 70 nominees in Toronto on Wednesday morning, noting that the contenders span the ages of 25 to 74.

'It was a really hard choice because there were a number of very, very fine books...I hope what we've provided is a really broad cross-section of the kind of wide-ranging approaches to fiction [we have in Canada].'—Juror Gerry Shikantani

Irish-born, London, Ont.-based Donoghue, whose dramatic novel Room has received accolades during this fall literary season, is among the English-language fiction finalists.

Also vying in the category is Montreal-based short fiction author Kathleen Winter, nominated for her debut novel Annabel (which is also a contender for the Giller Prize and the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize this season).

Their competitors include:

• Sandra Birdsell (Regina), Waiting for Joe.
• Drew Hayden Taylor (Curve Lake, Ont.), Motorcycles & Sweetgrass.
• Dianne Warren (Regina), Cool Water.

Overall, 1,702 books were submitted for consideration.

Exploring all these titles in a matter of months was "physically, emotionally and intellectually demanding," according to author Gerry Shikantani, one of three English-language fiction jurors who perused about 200 submissions.

"I didn't really get to travel this summer, but I travelled extensively through these books," he told CBC News after the announcement.

"[Determining the five finalists] was a really hard choice because there were a number of very, very fine books," he added. "I hope what we've provided is a really broad cross-section of the kind of wide-ranging approaches to fiction [we have in Canada]."

Award-winning Toronto playwright Thompson is a finalist in the English-language drama category for Such Creatures. Her rivals for the prize are:

• Robert Chafe (St. John's, N.L.), Afterimage.
• Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman (Toronto), Scratch.
• Michael Healey (Toronto), Courageous.
• David Yee (Toronto), lady in the red dress.

Toronto journalist and author Brown will vie for the English-language, non-fiction honour for his acclaimed account The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son. Also competing in the category are:

• Elizabeth Abbott (Toronto), A History of Marriage.
• Allan Casey (Saskatoon), Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada.
• Karen Connelly (Toronto), Burmese Lessons: A Love Story.
• John English (Kitchener, Ont.), Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-2000.

Celebrated translator Sheila Fischman has landed two nominations in the French-to-English translation category for her adaptations of Michel Tremblay's Le cahier blue (The Blue Notebook) and Dominique Fortier's Du bon usage des étoiles (On the Proper Use of Stars).

Laferrière and Marie-Claire Blais are among the French-language nominees (in the fiction category for L'énigme du retour and Mai au bal des prédateurs, respectively). A complete list of nominees is on the Canada Council website.

The winner of each category receives $25,000 and a specially bound copy of his or her book, while his or her publisher receives $3,000 to help promote the title. Non-winning finalists each receive $1,000.

Winners in all 14 categories (seven each in English and in French) will be announced on Nov. 16 at La Grande Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec in Montreal, with Gov. Gen. David Johnston to present the awards at a Rideau Hall gala on Nov. 25.

Emma Donoghue, seen at her London, Ont. home, is an English-language fiction nominee for the Governor General's Award. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press)