Richard Van Camp on his novel, The Lesser Blessed

I remember the day I held my author’s copy of The Lesser Blessed in my hands. 1996. Victoria student housing. Rain.

There were 117 pages of Larry Sole’s confession. There were the last five years of my focus, sweet love, embarrassment and excitement. There it was and I couldn’t take it back: I had fired an arrow of flaming light into the world and I had no idea who it would find. I was terrified.

Growing up in Fort Smith and through all my reading, I had a sense that no one was sharing my story: no one was writing about having grandparents who were medicine people; no one was writing about driving your Ski-Doo to high school and then racing out past the highway to watch your brother check his snares before heading home to watch Degrassi Junior High on CBC; no one was talking about having spaghetti and meatballs with the meat being either caribou or buffalo.

The best piece of writing advice I’ve ever heard is, “Write something you’d like to read.” So I started The Lesser Blessed when I was 19. I don’t think it hit me that I was working on a novel. I just knew that Larry Sole was after me in whispers and belly laughs, secrets and sighs. And he was with me for five years.

The smartest thing I ever did with my writing was invent a community called Fort Simmer: it’s an amalgamation of Fort Smith, Hay River and Behchoko, NWT. Since it’s a fictional community, readers, family and friends were able to let their guards down and enjoy a story about the North.

In all the years I wrote the novel, it never occurred to me that I was writing a life story of a cousin of mine who ended his own young life, far too young and far too soon. I won’t get into it but this novel is how I wish my cousin’s life could have been.

Mahsi cho to everyone who ever came out to a reading or invited me on a tour. I’ve been able to travel to so many parts of the world sharing stories from the North. I’m proud of this. I am grateful to every professor and teacher who taught the novel. Mahsi cho.

I’m just so grateful to Larry Sole for calling my name all those years ago. Larry, bless you. I am so grateful to have known and to honour you.

**The Lesser Blessed is on the list of books banned from Alberta's K-9 schools

Excerpted from the introduction to the 20th anniversary edition of The Lesser Blessed