Small in the City by Sydney Smith, already the winner of one of Canada’s biggest literary awards, was just selected as the winner of the UK’s Kate Greenaway award for children’s literature.
Here is the link to the CBC story with all the information: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/sydney-smith-cilip-kate-greenaway-medal-win-1.6067505?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar
I didn’t start this website to promote (and gush over) other people’s books – it was for me to promote my own book, Senior Moment, published in April by NImbus. It’s not as if that was my first book – actually it was the 10th. But this is 2021 and authors need websites in order to be found and have their work read. (If no one reads it, what’s the point?)
And it’s not like building a website was easy. I was told it would take two weeks and it did. Fourteen (14!) days of digging into the deep dark mysteries of things like POPs and imaps and plugins and two-factor protocols and MySQL (what the???) – I never want to have to do it again.
So, after all that work done just for me, me, me – why do I want to boost other writers’ works?
Well, I can’t resist – there are so many good books – good Canadian books – that I want to share my discovery and enjoyment of them. I wish I had time to read more of them. (I do read non-Canadian works, by the way. There are no boundaries for great literature, or for good stories and story-telling. But Canadian stories are more relatable to me. make me feel good.)
Another reason is that what goes around, comes around. I have had the good fortune to be “blogged” and reviewed by others in the biz, and I want to return the favour.
Then there is the community aspect of writing. It’s a rather solitary occupation, but it is validating and encouraging to know that someone else out there shares our experiences; appreciates what we each do; and – especially and genuinely – celebrates our achievements with us.
One more reason to talk about Syd’s achievement is that he is one of seven featured authors reading virtually at Read by the Sea literary festival (July 2-9 at www.readbythesea.ca).
Can we pick them, or what? Visit the website to see the list of authors at past festivals – a veritable Who’s Who in Canadian writing, with new talent rising all the time.
So – good for YOU, Syd … and Sheree and Joshua and Sarah and Carolyn and Louise and Dean and Genevieve and Ed and Magi and Joan and Amy and Pasha and Rebecca and Wayne and Don and Mayann and Heather and James and Margaret and Paul and Elizabeth and Peter and Mary and Stephen and Linda and Lana and Laurie and Jack and Robert and Michael and Phil and Chris and Terry and Lesley and Sharon and Kevin and Lorri and Jennifer and Kim and Will and Anne and Carol and Linden and Cherie and Megan and Al and Lawrence and Christy and David and Vern and Desmond …… you get the picture. I left some of you out. It was either that or keep writing and miss the dinner bell.