Jeffrey Round wins Lambda Literary Award

I now have proof positive that I bet on winning horses - that is, I tend to interview or write about authors whose work speaks to me, inspires me, entertains me, or provokes me.

In this case, I have interviewed one Mr. Jeffrey Round on more than one occasion. On June 3, 2013, Mr. Round accepted the Lambda Literary Award for his novel, Lake On the Mountain (Dundurn Press, 2012).


Photo of the award winner himself, author Jeffrey Round.

Round is a Toronto writer whose charm is exceeded only by his prolific output of novels, both mystery and literary, and his mix of humor, literary acumen, and memorable characters. Lake On the Mountain was no exception, and won me over, as many of his works have. Lake features Dan Sharpe, a detective struggling with alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, and relating to his very few loved ones. Simultaneously, he tries to solve a mystery about a missing person, set in and around Toronto, no less. I most recently wrote about Round in mthe April 26, 2012 issue of Xtra: Canada's gay & lesbian news.

Round has two other rather underrated literary novels. The first is The Honey Locust (Cormorant Books, 2009), which portrays a dysfunctional family and heroine who escapes her stifling family life by becoming a wartime photographer. A Cage of Bones is the other. Rounder Publications thankfully released a second edition in 2008. Bones concerns a young, gay male model leaving safe Toronto for the precarious world of professional modeling and self-realization. In both instances, Round hits his literary notes out of the ballpark, showing us where he lives, as they used to say in little league baseball. Both novels are worthy discoveries for any discerning reader.

Quill and Quire ran the award story on their website on June 5, 2013.