Naomi K. Lewis (born 1976, London, England) is a Canadian fiction and nonfiction writer who resides in Calgary, Alberta. She was a finalist ^[1] for the 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction.

Life and career

Lewis was born in London, and grew up near Washington, D.C. and in Ottawa. Her sister and brother-in-law are the artists Chloe Lewis and Andrew Taggart, ^[2] and her great uncle was the poet and artist Izrael Lejzerowicz [ pl]. Lewis lived in Toronto, Fredericton and Edmonton, and completed degrees in philosophy and English literature, before settling in Calgary. She served as writer-in-residence both at the Calgary Public Library in 2011, and at the University of New Brunswick in 2015. ^[3] Lewis was an associate editor of Alberta Views magazine from 2012 to 2015. ^[4]

Works

Lewis's first novel, Cricket in a Fist, was published by Goose Lane Editions in 2008. Lewis's story, "The Guiding Light" won the 2007 Fiddlehead fiction contest and appeared in McClelland and Stewart's 2008 Journey Prize Anthology. ^{[5] [6]} Lewis' collection of short stories I Know Who You Remind Me Of won the 2012 Colophon Prize, from Great Plains Publishing. ^[7] Lewis's 2011 Alberta Views article "The Urge to Purge", ^[8] about detox diets, was shortlisted for a 2011 Canadian National Magazine Award, as was her 2014 article "A Bridge Too Far: The Story of My Big Jewish Nose." ^[9] With Calgary writer Rona Altrows, she edited an anthology of essays and poetry about shyness entitled Shy, published by the University of Alberta Press in 2013. ^[10]

Lewis also co-wrote In Case of Fire, a 2010 memoir about Edmonton burn survivor and workplace safety advocate Spencer Beach.

More recently, Lewis's 2019 memoir Tiny Lights for Travellers won Alberta's Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction, ^[11] the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature (nonfiction), ^[12] and the Pinsky Givon Family Prize for Nonfiction, a Western Canada Jewish Book Award. ^[13] It was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Award. ^[14]

References