“I DON’T CONSIDER MYSELF THAT KIND OF WRITER...” Joel Thomas Hynes. Winner of $25,000 English Fiction Prize.

14 tiles had just been picked from 70 finalists in English and French by Canada Council. We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night by Joel Thomas Hynes is the winner of the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award for English fiction. According to Thomas, Laudatory reviews and awards were the farthest thing on his mind when he was writing the book. “I was thinking about, man, getting to the end of the book, you know?” he

said. “Getting through the night, getting it right, getting this monster out of my system... It was a day-to-day thing for me. I really had no expectation beyond eventual publication.”

       Also he said, “I’d go into a draft, and when I’m inside a draft of a book or if I’m on a big project or anything like that, I just vanish into it, and I don’t think much. I’m more or less just trying to get in touch with something inside.”

        He said making a long list for the Giller Prize was a shock, but it made him realize he wanted something more for the book. Being a finalist for the GOVERNOR GENERAL’S AWARD was way outside his aspirations. He even thought it was an error, “I don’t consider myself that kind of writer, even,” he said. “I’ve been making a go of it on the fringes of the arts for a long time. Even if I’m perceived to be successful in different fields, I still feel like I’m on the fringes and I’m on the fringes and I’m very unconventional. When I got a call that I’d won, I assumed it was an administrative error. Are you sure? I said. Just check your papers again. She said, ‘Oh no, we are sure. It’s all good.’ So it took me a while to absorb it, process it, trying to figure out what it means to me as a writer, what it means to me professionally, and ultimately I’m under no illusions that it changes what the next book is. It dosen’t make writing easier.

       That is Joel Thomas, winning $25,000 in a literary award. We can do more with literature.