Hamilton Literary Awards celebrate city’s best writers
John Terpstra, Chris Laing, Gary Barwin and Krista Foss are the winners of the 22nd annual Hamilton Literary Awards, announced Tuesday night at the Dofasco Centre for the Arts.
Their winning books present a wide range of writing: a murder mystery set in 1940s Hamilton; a gripping novel set amid a divisive First Nations’ land dispute; a quirky and humorous collection of poetry; and a deeply emotional account of personal loss and introspection.
Foss, a former Globe and Mail reporter, won the fiction award for her debut novel “Smoke River” (Emblem/McClelland & Stewart), which follows the effects of a dispute on the residents of a native community and a neighbouring town. The book was also nominated for a North American Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers.
Laing, a Hamilton native now living in Kingston, won the Kerry Schooley Award for the book “that best captures the spirit of Hamilton and surrounding areas.” His winning entry was “A Deadly Venture” (Seraphim Editions), his second instalment in the Max Dexter mystery series. The book follows the adventures of a private eye as he infiltrates the city’s 1940s mob scene.
“The judges said Laing was able to make the city of Hamilton a distinct character in this book,” said Stephen Near, operations officer for the Hamilton Arts Council, which oversees the awards.
Terpstra, who won the Hamilton Literary Award for poetry in 2015, took the non-fiction category this year for “The House with the Parapet Wall” (Gaspereau Press), a book that describes the author’s wanderings, both physical and emotional, following the loss of his mother.
Barwin won the poetry award for his latest collection “In Moon Baboon Canoe” (Mansfield Press), described as “bringing equal depth to topics as universal as time and those as intimate as the life of a squirrel.”
Copies of the books are available through Bryan Prince Bookseller in Westdale and A Different Drummer Books in Burlington.