Sept. 20, 2019
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – Author Kate Harris is the winner of the 2019 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction for her book Lands of Lost Borders (Knopf Canada).

"For a first book, Lands of Lost Borders reads like the best of travel writing,” said Bruce Gillespie, an award juror and professor in Wilfrid Laurier University’s Digital Media and Journalism program. “Harris takes readers on a gruelling bicycle trek through some of the world's most isolated communities, journeying through places such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Tibet, and rendering it so vividly that you feel like you've been pedalling for days. At the same time, she shares her own journey of self-discovery and how she left behind her childhood dreams of exploring Mars for one of exploring our own planet and connecting with its diverse people and places. It's a beautifully written, evocative book that will appeal to adventurers and armchair travellers alike."

In addition to Lands of Lost Borders, the shortlist for the 2019 Edna Staebler Award included: Mad Blood Stirring, by Daemon Fairless (Penguin Random House Canada) and Heart Berries: A Memoir, by Terese Marie Mailhot (Doubleday Canada).

Kate Harris will be celebrated at two public events at Wilfrid Laurier University:

• Thurs., Nov. 7 from 2:30-4:00 p.m. Award presentation and book reading in the Robert Langen Art Gallery and Library on the Waterloo campus of Wilfrid Laurier University.
• Fri., Nov. 8, 12 p.m. Meet the author in Room CB100 (Reid Lounge) of the Carnegie Building on Laurier’s Brantford campus.

Panel judges for the 2019 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction included: Sharon Brown, Laurier librarian emerita; Bruce Gillespie, professor in Laurier’s Digital Media and Journalism program; and Anne Russell, former professor in Laurier’s Department of English & Film Studies.

About the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction

The $10,000 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction recognizes Canadian writers for a first or second work of creative non-fiction that includes a Canadian locale and/or significance. Established and endowed by writer and award-winning journalist Edna Staebler in 1991, the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction is administered by Wilfrid Laurier University, the only university in Canada to bestow a nationally recognized literary award.