Kevin Major St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada E-Mail

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AWARDS The House of Wooden Santas was the winner of two awards in 1998. In June, Kevin Major, Imelda George (the wood carver) and Ned Pratt (the photographer) received the Mr. Christie Book Award in a ceremony at the downtown Chapters store in Toronto. Then, in November, at the Maritime Museum in Halifax, the book was honoured with the Ann Conner-Brimer Award, presented by the Nova Scotia Library Association for the best work of children's literature in Atlantic Canada. And in May, Kevin was the recipient of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council's Artist-of-the-Year Award. They were all special occasions, to be remembered for many years.

ARTICLES Canadian Living magazine ran an article by Kevin on the writing of The House of Wooden Santas in their December, 1998 issue, together with an excerpt from the book. In Chatelaine of the same month the book was one of ten children's books highlighted for gift-giving. The House of Wooden Santas continues to generate a lot of interest. Must be that Christmas spirit shining through! This is 10th anniversary of Writers in Electronic Residence (WIER), the innovative program that connects Canadian school students with published authors through the Internet. To mark the occasion, WIER invited KM to give the inaugural WIER lecture. It was held at Memorial University of Newfoundland, with the sponsorship of Doubleday Canada. An excerpt from the speech can be found in the December 1998 issue of Quill & Quire.

FREE THE CHILDREN KM recently spent several months working with Craig Kielburger on a co-writing project. The result is Free the Children, the story of Craig's efforts to focus attention on the global problem of child labour. Among other things, it is a fascinating account of his seven-week trip though South Asia when he was just thirteen. The book is published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart, in Germany by Econ, and in the U.S. by Harper Collins. A starred review in Quill and Quire called it "a remarkable portrait...[with] the high drama and emotion of a top-flight thriller." To find out more about the organization which works so hard to eliminate abusive child labour, check out the website: Free the Children. (www.freethechildren.org/)

A SMALL PRINT RUN

KM's most recent publishing venture has had a rather limited print run. Just 15 copies! It's an artist book, undertaken with painter and printmaker John Hartman and book-maker Tara Bryan. Titled From Eastern Ports, it has 7 original etchings (six bound into the book and one loose), together with a longish poem by KM, and excerpts from interviews done with older residents of Newfoundland's Eastport Peninsula when the author lived there. Typeset and printed by Tara, using hand-made paper, and bound by her with great craftsmanship, it's a very special book indeed.