Wanna sneak into the library after hours and hang out with a famous, award-winning author?
Sure you do, especially when said author is renowned humourist Terry Fallis, the CBC Canada Reads Essential Canadian Novel of the Decade champ and two-time Stephen Leacock Medal-winning writer behind The Best Laid Plans and No Relation. Based in Toronto, Fallis is making a special return appearance after his 2012 STARFest event.
With a few years in between conversations – “it was a few books ago,” Fallis synopsized – it seemed like a good idea to recap how his professional career has been. One of those new novels, he noted, nabbed one of those aforementioned prizes.
“No Relation miraculously won the Leacock Medal last year. That was a big thrill. I always think it’s a stroke of great luck when things like that happen. I would have died happy having won it once but to win it a second time was astonishing to me.”
Half a year after that, his newest novel Poles Apart was released with a popular reception from his adoring fans. The story follows Everett, a straight white 30ish writer who moves to Florida to care for his father who is ailing. It’s during this time that he meets Beverly Tanner, his feminist hero when he was still in university. The meeting rekindles Everett’s interest in feminism, sparking him to start a blog called Eve of Equality but without using his true identity.
It has appeared off and on the Globe’s bestseller list ever since and is still holding its own on a few other such lists. That, plus it has already established its place in the running for the next Leacock medal, to be handed out in mid-June.
“No complaints,” he enthused, adding that having a touch of popularity gives him a reasonable excuse to pop out west again to visit his readers in their natural habitat.
“I’m always delighted to do that. I think that’s how one sells books in this country: it’s by saying ‘yes’ when you’re invited to go somewhere and talk about it. If you don’t do anything to promote it, you end up with what I call ‘spine marketing’ where all that you have marketing your book is the spine of your book sitting on a fiction shelf of a bookstore with tens of thousands of other books. That’s not a lot going for you.”
He said that he had a marvelous time during his last stop in St. Albert and he’s hoping for a repeat experience on Friday.
Public services manager Heather Dolman said that she can’t wait for the fond guest to hold court again.
“Our audience really enjoyed Fallis’ last visit and we felt it was time for a return,” she said, noting that this is also the first time the library’s organizers have staged a STARFest event outside of the usual fall festival calendar.
After Hours with Terry Fallis takes place on March 11 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Forsyth Hall at the St. Albert Public Library. Hosting the sold-out event will be this year’s Metro Regional Writer in Residence Marty Chan.
