The awards recognized Canadian writers for new works published in Canada during 1959.
[citation needed] Canada Council for the Arts took over administration of the program sometime during 1959 or 1960 – after the 1958 Governor General's Awards that recognized 1958 publications.
Canada Council arranged for the first cash prizes to award-winning writers, "at least 6 prizes of $1000 each for fiction, nonfiction, and drama or poetry in English and French".
[1] Thus, the program was expanded to cover French- as well as English-language works.
[2] In the event, only four awards were conferred for 1959 publications, two for English-language and two for French.