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PCO . 54â€" c , 3 1 o TRA again ume to announce the soldier‘s experience of this horrendous battle. He recorded his winner of the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Nonâ€"Fiction. This own experience, dug out notes and diaries of other soldiers, is the only award of its kind in Canada, and it is an important _ looked up official war records, and conducted dozens of interâ€" one. views. A great deal of fuss is always made about fiction and the winâ€" He gathered all those together into this book which presents ners of fiction awards. But nonâ€"fiction has a way of enduring. the Canadian soldier‘s view of Normandy. it is a story which Canadians have always readâ€"and writtenâ€"widely in nonâ€"fic needs to be told, and Blackburn tells it compellingly, drawing tion. Edna Stagbler established the award s the reader in dose to the action, to the to recognize the writers who make nonâ€"ficâ€" ‘ way it was. The guns of Normandy echo tion creative and interesting to read. This _ § into the reader‘s ears and heart in this year the committee chose four books for ; * carefully constructed account. the shortist. y The committee valued this book for Artists, Craftsmen and Technocrats by . many reasons. it is an attempt to recover Patricia Pitcher caught the committee‘s _ the past, to correctâ€"or at least to attention because it was an unusual book extendâ€"the record, giving personal expeâ€" in the reaim of business writing. Pitcher 7 rience its proper place in history. These insists on the importance of art, of metaphor, of language, first hand accounts are fragile, and it is important to catch them within any business environment. She identifies various types of while they are still around. We need to hear these men‘s stories. people within a corporation, the most deadly of all being the Normandy is an international story, but Blackburn shows the technocrat who refuses the imaginative approach or insights of reader how intensely it is also a Canadian storyâ€"and a human the artist and craftsman. one. He finds a way to share it which gives it poignancy and A strong contender was Stompin‘ Tom: Before the Fame, by immediacy. His accomplishment is really remarkable. Stompin‘ Tom Connors. This is a brave autobiography. it tells a The Guns of Normandy is now in paperback. its sequel, The remarkable story of hardship and deprivation. Connors writes in Guns of Victory, is available in local bookstores. a believable, straightforward style which sets out the happenâ€" ings of his young lifeâ€""before the fame." He had a difficult life. on Monday, November 4 He records his story, he says, as much to encourage people like him as anything else. His life seemed to the committee a "quinâ€" George Bladdourn * tessential Canadian Story." will read from Women of the Klondike by Frances Backhouse is also a book which the committee members enjoyed. Backhouse did a great The Guns of Normandy deal of careful research into the lives of these womenâ€"and winner of the 1996 Edna Staebier Award for astonishing lives they were. She is respectful of all these peoâ€" Creative Nonâ€"Fiction pleâ€"whatever they did to earn a living or to survive. The book rounds out the stories of men in the Klondike, presenting at The Wilfrid Laurier Bookstore another dimension of life in that remarkable time and place, at 12 noon which fired the imaginations of so many Canadians. The winner of the Award? George Blackburn‘s The Guns of A signed copy of this book would be a wonderful gift! Normandy. This book is the result of many years of labour and # * * reflection. Judith Miller is an associate professor of English at Renison After the war, Blackburn started to put together the ordinary College at University of Waterloo. it is hard to believe that it is once again time to announce the winner of the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Nonâ€"Fiction. This is the only award of its kind in Canada, and it is an important one. A great deal of fuss is always made about fiction and the winâ€" ners of fiction awards. But nonâ€"fiction has a way of enduring. Canadians have always readâ€"and writtenâ€"widely in nonâ€"fic y,_ 6 PRINCESS STREET WEST + WATERLOO + s85â€"2950 Wed. Oct. 30 920 p.mm. bri Hov | & Sat Mov 7 _ in Spamith With 790 pm., Sun How 3 900 pm. Emglad Subrtithes SPECIAL EXHIBITION