Harold Johnson won the University of Saskatchewan Non-Fiction Award. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

award winner

Johnson wins University of Saskatchewan Non-Fiction Award

May 2, 2019 | 1:03 PM

Harold Johnson was recognized by the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Clifford, an experimental memoir he wrote in honour of his late brother.

The event, which brought together more than 300 people to celebrate excellence in writing and publishing, was held April 27 in Regina. In all, 14 books received an award at the gathering with Clifford winning the University of Saskatchewan Non-Fiction Award. Johnson stated he was surprised the book won because it’s not specific to any genre.

“I wasn’t expecting an award for Clifford when I wrote it because it doesn’t have a category to win an award in,” he said. “I was quite content to put it out there, something new and something for people to try and get their heads around. We really have to honour the jurors of the non-fiction prize that they had the courage to award the non-fiction prize to Clifford, even thought it doesn’t neatly fit into that category.”

Clifford, which was officially published Aug. 28, 2018, is Johnson’s eighth book and it includes true accounts of growing up in Molanosa with his family, as well as stories about his late brother. The surreal portions of the book are about some of the conversation Johnson had with Clifford, along with the funeral scenes of camping in the yard where they grew up at Molanosa. Johnson’s late brother was killed by a drunk driver in 1985 and the book Clifford is meant to honour him.

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Johnson is also a previous Saskatchewan Book Award winner as he received the award for fiction back in 2011 for The Cast Stone. Jurors seemed impressed by Clifford and by Johnson’s storytelling.

“Johnson’s wit and fabulous storytelling has created an intense, gripping story of brothers who each wrote their worlds in ways that enlarge the human soul,” jurors were quoted as saying.

Copies of Clifford are available for purchase at Robertson Trading in La Ronge or the Lac La Ronge Visitor Centre in Air Ronge.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno