LITERARY EXCELLENCE
Major award for historian
Bill Waiser writes history. Now he’s made it.
With his book A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan Before 1905, he’s given Saskatchewan its second consecutive Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-fiction. Guy Vanderhaeghe won the award for fiction last year for Daddy Lenin and Other Stories.
Even getting the nomination had Waiser, you might say, buffaloed.
“I was quite frankly startled, shocked, in disbelief.”
When the confirmation call came, a couple of days before it was announced to the public, it was a thrill.
“When I found out I won I was overwhelmed, because I’ve been writing for over 25 years.
“It’s a tremendous recognition, too, and I was really gratified and flattered by that. It also says that maybe I’m writing some books that are important and have resonance.”
Waiser, who was a U of S history professor for more than 30 years, has published more than a dozen books and is a freelance columnist for The Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
This was his second Governor General’s Award nomination. A World We Have Lost took him into the realms of climate science, indigenous societies, archeology and anthropology.
“I think this book talks about another Saskatchewan that either people don’t know or they’ve overlooked or they don’t want to know about. Saskatchewan history did not start with settlement, there were indigenous societies here well before newcomers arrived,” he said, adding “There’s a lot of great, new research — I want to emphasize that.”
Waiser said he wanted to write the book “for everybody and anybody. They can pick this up and understand the history of this place before it became a province. That was my purpose.”
He’s looking forward to the awards ceremony in Rideau Hall next month but hasn’t decided what he’ll do with the $25,000 cash award.