A
couple of weeks ago, 49th Shelf asked the country's top reviewers
(from The
Globe and Mail,
Quill
and Quire,
The
National Post,
and CBC Books) to pick their "Surprise Books of the Year."
Shockingly, amazingly, unbelievably, miraculously, one of them picked
Keep it Beautiful.
The lovely Steven Beattie, editor of Quill and Quire and
National Post columnist had this to say about the book:
"Ward’s
story 'The Night Shift' won the Lush Triumphant Award for Fiction;
her debut collection is a suite of stories about outsiders and loners
trying to negotiate ambivalent relationships with an antagonistic
world. The author’s deft facility with character and her
willingness to trust her readers by infusing her stories with just
the right degree of contingency mark her as an author to watch."
The
element of surprise is mutual. Every late fall I read all manner of
“books of the year” lists such as this one in order to bulk up my
Christmas wish list with books I may have missed through out the
year. To see my name appear on such a list is a bit surreal. In a
year full of firsts, this is kind of a biggie. Check out the full article here, or on my News & Events page.
Happy fall!