HAMILTON, ON – May 12, 2022 – First Canada issued a resounding well done for author Norma Dunning’s short story collection Tainna: The Unseen Ones. Now it’s Hamilton’s turn to do the same.

The winner of the 2021 Governor General Literary Award for Fiction is this year’s Hamilton Reads choice.

Throughout the year, Hamilton Public Library invites Members to join the many events, conversations and celebrations focused on the six short stories in Tainna. The modern-day Inuk characters in Tainna range from homeless to extravagantly wealthy, spiritual and jaded, young and elderly, alive and deceased. Each is united by shared feelings of alienation, displacement and loneliness.

“Hamilton Reads is a very unique celebration of a writer's work,” said Dunning, a writer, scholar, researcher, professor and grandmother who lives in Edmonton, AB. “It is a festival that gives the reader time to understand the depth of the words, issues and creativity that lie within a book.”

Book Club chats, art exhibits, concerts and more are planned throughout the year. Bookmark hpl.ca/hamilton-reads to stay up to date. Pick up a Hamilton Reads Tic Tac Toe card at any of HPL’s 23 branches and bookmobile or online at hpl.ca/hamilton-reads. Complete a single line to earn a ticket for a prize draw or complete a full card to earn a special edition Hamilton Reads mug.

“This is HPL’s 13th Hamilton Reads — our year-long, One Book One Community celebration. Tainna is the first time we’ve chosen a short story collection. We hope readers and the community will enjoy, learn and relish the in-depth look into this exceptional book about Canada’s original storytellers,” said HPL’s Director, Collections and Program Development, Cindy Poggiaroni.