JJ Lee had no idea he'd just been named a finalist in the Governor General's Literary Awards.
The New Westminster writer was in Calgary for the WordFest writers' festival. With neither cellphone nor computer on hand to connect him to the wired world, he was out of touch with the news.
So, when he headed off to a morning meeting Tuesday - to talk about the WordFEAST fundraiser he'd be MC'ing on Tuesday night - he was surprised when one of the organizers congratulated him.
"I said thank you," he says. "I had no idea what she was talking about."
He quickly learned that she was congratulating him on the Governor General's nomination.
"'Don't tease me,' I think I said," Lee says with a laugh, on the phone from Calgary on Tuesday morning.
But no, it wasn't a joke. It took a fellow writer to look it up on her computer, and another to search on her iPhone, before Lee could be shown that yes, the news was real.
"I'm very happy," Lee says, though he admits that he didn't get outwardly excited. "I'm not a cool cucumber, I'm just in shock right now."
The Governor General's Literary Awards recognize Canada's best work in English and French in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, children's literature (text and illustration) and translation.
Lee is one of five finalists in the non-fiction, English category for his book, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit, recently published by McClelland & Stewart.
Also nominated in the same category are Charles Foran for Mordecai: The Life & Times, Nathan M. Greenfield for The Damned: The Canadians at the Battle of Hong Kong and the POW Experience, 1941-45, Richard Gwyn, for Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times, Volume Two: 18671891 and Andrew Nikiforuk for Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests.
Lee has no idea what to expect from the nomination or how it will affect his marketing of the book.
Past winners lists read like a Who's Who of the Canadian literary world, including such luminaries as Michael Ondaatje, Miriam Toews, Jane Urquhart, Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton and Marshall McLuhan.
But Lee isn't sure yet how being named in such illustrious company will affect the future of his own book.
He notes that, up till this point, he has focused on personally reaching people, one-on-one, to get his book into people's hands.
"I have really taken on the responsibility of sharing my book with people," he says. "I'm happy that there's another way to reach people, but I don't know what it means."
Lee was scheduled to be in Calgary until today (Friday).
He had a reading from The Measure of a Man on Wednesday and was taking part a panel on social media, with authors Lynn Coady and Emma Ruby-Sachs, on Thursday.
Lee is one of 68 finalists altogether for the Governor General's Literary Awards, chosen by a jury from a total of 1,684 eligible books.
"The GGs always generate excitement," said Robert Sirman, director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts, in a press release about the awards.
"The Canada Council has administered these awards for more than five decades, and the shortlisted and winning books have had tremendous influence not just in Canada but around the world."
For a full list of this year's Governor General's Literary Award finalists, see www. canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla.
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