The W.A. Deacon Literary Foundation (DLF) is a federally incorporated non-profit organization founded the 29 April 2008. The Foundation is named in honour of  William Arthur Deacon (1890-1977), Canadian literary critic and editor. Deacon was a Nationalist who championed many Canadian authors at a critical period in our literary history.  For forty years he was literary editor of Saturday Night (1922-8), The Mail and Empire (1928-36), and The Globe and Mail (1936-60). He contributed vast amounts of time and energy to building a readership and sympathetic climate for Canadian writers and writing. It is in the spirit of Deacon that the Foundation operates. 

The Foundation has recently uncovered a letter that establishes that William Arthur Deacon was the individual who was responsible for coming up with the idea of the Governor General’s Literary Awards through his colleagues at the Canadian Authors Association.