I got word about something magical last week from Dan Wells, my publisher at Biblioasis, but I had to keep it close to the vest until today. Turns out that this collection of stories I wrote, Debris, is a finalist for the Trillium Book Award. The official announcement was made this morning, and you can read about the award and the other excellent finalists by clicking this line.

Otherwise, here’s the full list of Trillium finalists (for the English language):

• Lynn Crosbie, Where Did You Sleep Last Night, House of Anansi Press
• Andrew Forbes, What You Need, Invisible Publishing
• Kevin Hardcastle, Debris, Biblioasis
• Robert Hough, The Man Who Saved Henry Morgan, House of Anansi Press
• Janette Platana, A Token of My Affliction, Tightrope Books
• Karen Solie, The Road In Is Not The Same Road Out, House of Anansi Press

Over the last two months, Debris got shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. That’s a pretty good late run for a book of stories that a lot of great people supported but that I figured did what it did, and that was the all of it. I’m very grateful to everyone responsible for giving this book enough of a chance to get it this far. It isn’t a book that makes a lot of sense on the traditional CanLit landscape, but it made a lot of sense to me, and hopefully to a few more people that may get turned on to it after these nominations.

So, thank you to the OMDC and the Trillium jury. You are champions to me and I would gladly smite your enemies. Otherwise, congratulations to all the other Trillium Book Award finalists. This ain’t a bad Wednesday.

Cheers.

Hardcastle