Short-listed for the inaugural Kerry Schooley Book Award, The Fishers of Paradise is going to the 20th Annual Hamilton Literary Awards,[image error]

and I’ve decided to tag along too. Named in honour of the late Kerry Schooley, poet and noir mystery author (under John Swan) and a man who could be found in front of the microphone or behind the scenes at virtually every arts and literary event in Hamilton, the award is given to the book most evocative of the gritty city. I look forward to catching up with the other nominees, including my former creative writing student, Joanne Levy, short-listed in the Fiction category for Small Medium at Large (yes, I’m enormously proud), David Collier, whose Hamilton Illustrated is up for the Non-Fiction Award and who headlined the Graphic Novels event for us at gritLIT back when I was chair in 2005. I also get to meet two people I currently only know from facebook–Miranda Hill, currently up for Sleeping Funny, her debut book of short stories, and Mark Leslie, who is not only the author of Haunted Hamilton, short-listed for Non-Fiction, but also the big boss at Kobo’s self-publishing department. It’ll be refreshing to chat with him about other than corrupted files (mine) and uploading issues (also mine!).

Award night is Tuesday, November 12, 7.30 p.m.at Theatre Aquarius, 190 King William Street, Hamilton. Gambatte everyone!