ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

MY fiRST ACKNOWLEDGMENT goes to the men in the prison book clubs at Collins Bay and Beaver Creek for their warm welcome and for putting me at ease. It was a privilege to have spent time with them. I am particularly grateful for the trust and generosity of those who agreed to be interviewed and who kept journals about their reading. Thank you above all to Ben, Dread, Frank, Gaston, Graham and Peter. I hope we will continue our journey in books together.

This book could not have been written without the equally generous access provided by Correctional Service Canada. Thanks especially to Kevin Snedden and Charles Stickel, who were the wardens at Collins Bay and Beaver Creek, but also to officials at the regional and national levels who approved access. I send thanks, as well, to the chaplains in each institution, for cheerfully hosting the space for my interviews, which meant additional administrative work for them, and to the Collins Bay prison librarian, who gave me insight into the prison book culture.

My Toronto women’s book club granted me permission to write about three book club meetings in which we read the same books as the men in the Collins Bay Book Club, for which I am very appreciative.

I am also deeply indebted to my writers group, The Ridge Group, now celebrating its tenth anniversary: Brigid Higgins, Peggy Lampotang, Mike MacConnell and Susan Noakes. When I was writing four chapters a month they agreed to read along at that pace, and their comments helped me to apply the techniques of fiction to a non-fiction book.

I consider myself very fortunate to have as my agent and mentor the smart and very capable Hilary McMahon, at Westwood Creative Artists. She supported the project at its earliest stages and challenged me to move beyond my training as a journalist to express my reactions to experiences in the prisons and incorporate more elements of memoir. The agency’s Lien de Nil worked through a terrible cold following the Frankfurt Book Fair to orchestrate the initial sale on the international rights side. I am incredibly grateful to them both.

I am thrilled to have found a home with the great publishing teams at Penguin Canada and Oneworld, in the U.K. Diane Turbide, my wonderful editor at Penguin, offered invaluable editorial advice early on and solid support throughout. Oneworld publisher Juliet Mabey has been an inspiring collaborator whose early interest in the project encouraged me to tell the U.K. part of the story more fully. Copy editor Chandra Wohleber’s detailed read helped immeasurably. Also vital at Penguin were publisher Nicole Winstanley, publicist Emma Ingram, senior production editor Sandra Tooze and many others. I am fortunate as well to have in my camp Oneworld publicist Lamorna Elmer, a poet in her own right, and the rest of the team at Oneworld.

Many thanks to the author Roddy Doyle, for permission to use his emailed answers to the inmates’ questions about The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. Thanks too to Lawrence Hill, for allowing me to cover his author visit to the Collins Bay Book Club and agreeing to be interviewed afterward.

I would like to thank Carol Finlay for inviting me to participate in the prison book clubs she organized at Collins Bay and Beaver Creek. She and her husband, Bryan, hosted me with great warmth at their Amherst Island home on numerous occasions during the research for this book so that I could combine my visits to the book club with follow-up interviews with the men and with Carol.

My parents encouraged me to write and nurtured my love of books and nature. They also taught me invaluable lessons about trust. I am grateful to them and to my brothers, who took on additional family duties during the period when I was writing intensively.

To my precious children, you are my best cheering section, and offered great insights into the universal themes in this book. You also have my back and I love you fiercely.

My beloved husband, Bruce, made the manuscript many times better. He was my first and most dedicated reader. In the final editing stages, we sat across from each other at our dining room table, reading each chapter aloud and discussing it line by line. His constant love and support gave me the time I needed for research and writing. Without him, this book would have been impossible.