Calgary author Tyler Hellard didn’t set out to become a novelist, but life has a funny way of rewriting itself along the way.
Hellard’s path to writing fiction included switching his university major away from business, not once, not twice, but three times, before ultimately graduating with his English degree from St. Francis Xavier in Nova Scotia. [In the interest of full disclosure, along the way, Hellard also married The Scene’s publisher, Käthe Lemon.]
Now, Hellard’s debut novel, Searching for Terry Punchout, is one of five books shortlisted for this year’s Canada Reads competition. The book will be championed in the competition by sports analyst, author and YouTube personality, Steve “Dangle” Glynn.
The story follows Adam, a man who returns to his Maritime hometown and is forced to reconnect with his estranged father, Terry Punchout, a reclusive former hockey goon.
“It’s slightly autobiographical in the sense that I grew up in an East Coast town and had to sort of reckon with my feelings about it after I left,” Hellard says, adding it doesn’t reflect his relationship with his own dad. “The idea came from a lot of places.”
Being shortlisted as a Canada Reads author is both thrilling and intimidating for Hellard, a self-professed recluse himself. But he notes that he’s excited to be a part of such an important literary event.
“I think the best thing you can do with a book is read it and the second best thing you can do is argue about it,” he says.
“Books have always been an important way to capture and share knowledge and stories,” he says, adding that reading allows people to slow down and absorb the world one page at a time.
“I think that today, so many things are screaming for our attention and gnawing away at our attention spans, so sitting down for an hour with a book and just enjoying it is a way to fight back a bit and recharge.”
WordFest presents Calgary’s Canada Reads Celebration on April 1 at the Memorial Park Library, featuring Tyler Hellard and Steve “Dangle” Glynn with fellow champion and BookTok star Morgann Book and Joss Richard, author of It’s Different This Time.
wordfest.com
