Elizabeth Hay wasn’t planning on being a writer. In the mid 70s, she was an on-ar host at CBC Radio in Yellowknife — good experience that would later form much of the content of Late Nights on Air, which won the Giller Prize for Canadian literature this week.
The book follows a group of Northerners trying to run a radio station. Hay later worked for CBC in Winnipeg, then CBC Radio’s Sunday Morning in Toronto. By the mid-80s, she left broadcasting mostly behind to focus on writing.
Her first book was a collection of short stories. She has also written two novels.
But, as the Globe and Mail reported, it may be tough to find a copy of the book:
…Copies of Late Nights on Air were rather hard to find yesterday among the independent retailers who were foremost among Hay’s early champions.
One Toronto independent, Ben McNally Books, had about 35 in stock but only because its proprietor had “ordered up” to take advantage of Hay’s appearance last month at the International Festival of Authors, where he was the on-site bookseller.
Hay receives $40,000 for the Giller Prize award.
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