Cochrane author, Fred Stenson, is one of 25 authors across the country whose work has been shortlisted on CBC Radio’s Canada Reads 2013 contest, hosted by popular CBC Radio host of program Q, Jian Ghomeshi.
Divided into five regions, the third round saw five works selected in each region on Nov. 14; now down to 25 possibilities, five Canadian celebrity panelists will be announced on Ghomeshi’s radio show, Q, on Nov. 29, each selecting and defending their top pick (one selection per region) on air.
Stenson’s 2000 novel, The Trade, has been selected as one of the five contenders in the ‘Prairies and North’ region.
His third novel, The Trade, is a re-creation of Western Canadian life during the fur trade era, during the reign of The Hudson’s Bay Company.
Stenson has written some 15 books over the last 25 years.
“The thing I like about the way they’ve changed (the competition) this year is that it tends to bring out some of the back listed books a bit…books are being drawn from all over the country and from other periods,” said Stenson, who is currently finishing up a writer-in-residency program with 12 writers in Whistler, B.C.
Stenson is currently promoting his newest book, Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park: Grass Hills and History, which celebrates the cultural history of the local provincial park.
The 2012 celebrity panelists included famed entrepreneur, Arlene Dickinson, hip hop artist, Shad, actor and television personality, Alan Thicke, fashion icon, Stacey McKenzie and colourful and opinionated Quebecois lawyer, Anne-France Goldwater.
