Thomas King, Bill Gaston among finalists for Governor General’s Literary Award

TORONTO – Just half a year after winning major prizes for his non-fiction book “The Inconvenient Indian,” eminent writer Thomas King is reigning over another literary awards race.

On Tuesday, King’s “The Back of the Turtle” (HarperCollins Canada) was named as one of five finalists for a Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction, while English-to-French translations of two of his books were also nominated.

Daniel Poliquin’s translation of King’s “The Inconvenient Indian” (Doubleday Canada), and the Lori Saint-Martin/Paul Gagne translation of his short fiction collection “A Short History of Indians in Canada” (HarperCollins) were named as finalists for the awards, which honour writers in both official languages and in seven categories.

“This is one of those days where I’m going, ‘Huh, huh, what?’” a genuinely shocked King said in a telephone interview shortly after the list of finalists came out.

“The Back of the Turtle” is on a short list alongside “Sweetland” (Doubleday Canada) by Michael Crummey, a 2001 Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist from St. John’s, N.L., and “Juliet Was a Surprise” (Hamish Hamilton) by Victoria-based Bill Gaston, who was shortlisted for the Giller in 2002.

The other fiction finalists are Claire Holden Rothman of Westmount, Que., for “My October” (Penguin Canada) and Winnipeg’s Joan Thomas for “The Opening Sky” (McClelland & Stewart).

This is King’s first literary novel in 15 years, but he doesn’t like to dwell on that distinction.

“I always hate it when people say that because it makes it sound as though I haven’t been writing, that I’ve been a dilettante just sitting around, but it’s not true,” the affable and prolific author and professor, who was born in California and lives in Guelph, Ont., said with a chuckle.

“I’ve been very busy. I just didn’t get around to the literary novel, that was all. I’m slow. It takes me a while to do one.”

In fact, King said it took him seven years to write “The Back of the Turtle,” about a scientist who visits his mother’s native reserve community that’s now deserted after an environmental disaster.

“The novel form is where my heart lies, always has, and it’s partly because I can make everything up,” said King, 71. “I am God in that world and I can do whatever I want, and I really quite like it. It provides me with a really wide palate for my storytelling. So it’s always been my favourite, but it just takes me a LONG time to come up with a good idea and then to realize that idea in prose.”

“Maybe I am lazy, now that I think about it,” he added with a laugh. “It just seems to take me a long time. … I like the sound of words, and so I try to be as careful as I can with how they all work together.”

He also admitted he invests himself emotionally in all of his books, noting: “If I can’t move myself with my writing, chances are I can’t move anybody else.”

With “The Back of the Turtle,” he touched on several issues that are passionate to him, namely the “corporate world that we’ve allowed to run wild.”

“As I look at the world that I inhabit along with how many other billion people, I do ask the questions: Just how did we manage to do this? How did we manage to get to a place where profit is the only goal in life, it seems like? How did we get to a place where we no longer take care of each other the way I think we used to do?” said King, who is of Cherokee and Greek descent and was involved in native activism in the U.S. for several decades.

“I could be mistaken about that, but it seems at though we were a kinder world earlier on, and the question is, ‘How do we get back to that, that thing that we’ve lost?’”

The Canada Council for the Arts administers the Governor General’s Literary Awards.

The other finalists in the Translation (English to French) category are: Eric Fontaine for “The Blondes” by Emily Schultz (Doubleday Canada), Herve Juste for “April Fool’s Day” by Josip Novakovich (HarperCollins), and Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagne for “The Ghost Brush” by Katherine Govier (HarperCollins).

Each winner, chosen by peer assessment committees, receives $25,000.

Winners will be announced Nov. 18 and the awards will be presented Nov. 26 in Ottawa.

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