MONTREAL–Toronto author Nino Ricci has won a Governor General's Literary Award for his novel The Origin of Species.

It's the second time Ricci has received the prestigious fiction prize. The first was in 1990 for his debut novel, Lives of the Saints.

The jury said The Origin of Species, set in Montreal in the 1980s, "is written with great humanity, realism and wit." It's Ricci's fifth novel.

Ricci beat out a strong field of writers including David Adams Richards and Rawi Hage. Hage's novel, Cockroach, had also been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and for a Writers' Trust Award.

This year's fiction jury was comprised of Shauna Singh Baldwin, Greg Hollingshead and Jane Urquhart.

Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford picked up the non-fiction prize for her book about Afghanistan, Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death From Inside the New Canadian Army.

Blatchford's colleague at the newspaper, John Ibbitson, received the children's literature prize for The Landing.

The drama prize was won by Catherine Banks of Halifax for Bone Cage, while the poetry award was picked up by Toronto's Jacob Scheier for More to Keep Us Warm.

The winners receive $25,000, while the publishers of each winning book get $3,000. Runners-up take home $1,000.

Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean will present the awards during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Dec. 10.