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20 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 16, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Lawrence Hill on top with Book of Negroes "I worked for years on The Book of Negroes, sinking Former Oakville resident and deep into writing and author Lawrence Hill is stacking up researching without knowing awards for his historical novel, The if I would emerge with a Book of Negroes. good book." SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER By Melanie Cummings Hill was recently chosen a regional winner for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for his novel. Hill won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book, Canada and Caribbean region. Already this year, Hill was among those honoured at the Jane Mallett Theatre at the seventh annual Writers' Trust Awards. There, Hill was awarded the $15,000 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for his harrowing novel about a forgotten chapter of black history. Published by HarperCollinsCanada, The Book of Negroes dramatizes the tragic migration in and out of Canada of Nova Scotia's Black Loyalists. In the novel, heroine Aminata Diallo shares her incredible transatlantic journeys during the 18th century -- first as a child being sent into slavery in South Carolina and years later as an old woman leaving Halifax for Sierra Leone in the hope of finding her way back home. The Book of Negroes became a #1 bestseller in Canada in 2007, earned Lawrence Hill rave reviews in both Canada and the U.S. and remains on bestseller lists today. "I worked for years on The Book of Negroes, sinking deep into writing and researching without knowing if I would emerge with a good book. Similarly, the Black Loyalists who travelled from freedom to slavery and back, sailing twice across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1700s, had no way of knowing that their refusal to submit to slavery and segregation in Canada and in the United States would uplift and encourage people many generations later. I thank the jury for recognizing the Black Loyalists' vital, but nearly forgotten, story and for rewarding my efforts to dramatize it," said Hill. By virtue of its regional win, The Book of Negroes has been shortlisted for the overall Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book. Hill will travel to South Africa in May for the announcement of the Lawrence Hill overall winners and to conduct literary readings at the Franschhoek Literary Festival near Cape Town. In addition to this honour, The Book of Negroes is a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Prize and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Iris Tupholme, HarperCollinsCanada Vice President, publisher and editor-inchief said the publishing house is thrilled with Hill's win and noted his novel is a testament to the power and resilience of the human spirit in difficult times. Tupholme also noted the win brings Hill to a world stage. Hill's book takes its title from a British military document of the same name. Hill, born to a black father and white mother who were human rights activists in the U.S. and then in Canada, has written a string of books about being Black and Black history. Some are fiction, some not. He also has a film to his credit and is a familiar face locally and further afield as a speaker on Black history. Hill's book sees the author write in the first person through the persona of his protagonist, Aminata Diallo, a girl born around 1745 in the village of Bayo in Mali, Africa, who is raised a free Muslim, but who is stolen from her homeland for use in the slave trade in the late 1700s. Snatched from her mother one day when she was 11 years old, Aminata witnesses her parents' deaths as they attempt to reclaim her from the "man stealers" and embarks upon a journey in which she grows to womanhood and eventually old age, all while being stripped of her family, her name, her homeland, her background, her rights, her dignity, her children, but never her intelligence or spirit. Those characteristics establish her as a survivor who eventually goes full circle, returns to her homeland and then to further the cause of abolition. Aminata is a fictional character Hill has based on historical fact. The novel is a sweeping tale that takes the reader along with Aminata from her African village to a plantation in the southern U.S., from the Halifax docks to the manor houses of London. The story spans six decades and three continents as it examines the history of British slavery and liberation in the U.S., Canada, England and West Africa, through Aminata's tale. Hill points out not many people know of the Book of Negroes. It is an historical document of some size -- a book in which the British military recorded the names and descriptions of slaves who provided service to the British military during the American Revolution. As the British negotiated the conditions of their retreat from Manhattan, they recorded the service of the slaves in the ledger, which was literally a public passport. The slaves had been promised passage to freedom in Canada in return for their service. The ledger recorded them and is significant to the history of Blacks in North America, said Hill, because it was really the first written document that recorded information about Blacks in North America. "It's one of the most colourful, interesting documents I've ever seen," said Hill, noting people are described as "a likely fellow" or "a See Author page 21 Six Banks. Six Beds. One great cause. From April 2 - May 3, 2008 six banks are working together to raise funds for new hospital beds for the Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. · Visit your local bank branch or www.bankbedchallenge.com before May 3, 2008, to donate and make a difference in the health of our community! · Show your support by coming out on Race Day, Sunday, May 4, starting at 9 a.m. at the intersection of Lakeshore Road & Navy Street. Bank Bed Challenge More info: www.bankbedchallenge.com