Alexander MacLeod up for Giller Prize

SMU professor contender for prestigious literary award - winner will be announced Tuesday

Giller Prize finalist Alexander MacLeod (right) signs a copy of Light Lifting last month at the Halifax launch of his debut book of short stories. (Photo: Molly Segal)

Alexander MacLeod has impressed the judges for one of Canada's most prestigious literary prizes, but one young reader is less than impressed with his book, Light Lifting.

"I hate this book. It is ruining my life," MacLeod's eight-year-old daughter has told him, because when he's away from home and promoting the book, they can't finish book five of the Harry Potter series.

That makes her possibly the youngest critic of MacLeod's debut collection of short stories - and one of the harshest.

It took MacLeod 13 years to write Light Lifting, while finishing a doctoral thesis and raising a family. Only 24 hours after its publication, MacLeod was getting national recognition - he was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

He's one of the five finalists for the $50,000 award, with the winner to be announced Nov. 9.

Maintaining family ties

Despite the media attention - in national and local newspapers, literary journals and university publications - MacLeod, on sabbatical from Saint Mary's University where he teaches English, creative writing and Atlantic Canada studies, tries to maintain his family life.

His publisher and editor, Dan Wells of Biblioasis, a small Ontario literary press, understands MacLeod's devotion to his family. Wells and MacLeod are more friends than business partners - no contracts were signed, which gave MacLeod the freedom to accommodate his family and work.

MacLeod admires Wells's approach to writers and to publishing. He says Wells is the "truest true believer in literature" he's met.

MacLeod, who lives in Dartmouth with his wife and three children, says he's lucky he and his family are so close. Wells lets him maintain a relatively normal family life in the midst of promoting Light Lifting. For Halloween, he flew MacLeod back from Toronto's International Festival of Authors to trick-or-treat with his family.

One "dud" in collection

But MacLeod takes his recent fame in stride, acknowledging that his Giller nomination has Canadian readers interested in Light Lifting.

"The task of a first book is to get any attention at all," says MacLeod, whose father is the acclaimed novelist Alistair MacLeod.

"That jury did all that work for me. They put that book on people's radar."

Most reviews have been positive. Jim Bartley of the Globe and Mail and Jeet Heer of the National Post praised Light Lifting, but both criticized the book's concluding story, "The Number Three" - Bartley said it could be "tighter," while Heer called it a "dud."

MacLeod says Bartley and Heer reviewed an advance reader copy. Rushed to publish the collection, he threw in the story at the last minute. He didn't like the first version of "The Number Three" either, and says it was "totally overhauled" for the book's release.

Of the seven stories, snapshots of extraordinary moments in ordinary lives, six were left "almost untouched," says MacLeod.

Just as critics praise MacLeod's writing, his students speak equally well of him.

Many Saint Mary's students were at the Halifax launch for Light Lifting at The Company House in early October, two days after the book was shortlisted.

"He was just a part of the class rather than enforcing his own feelings," says former student Bryan Paterson.

While Giller hype has people reading Light Lifting, MacLeod says "any book lives between readers." Future readers will decide Light Lifting's staying power.

Comments on this story are now closed