WEYBURN — Former Weyburn resident author, Mark Morton, has recently been nominated for a literature award for his new novel The Headmasters.
Morton got into writing while teaching at the University of Winnipeg, starting in January 1993. The CBC radio station was beside the university, so Morton pitched an idea to them for a show about language. They approved the idea for a column on the origin of street names in Winnipeg.
“That grew into thinking about the origins of other words,” said Morton
This was then picked up by CBC National radio, and Morton did roughly 100 columns on language.
“This prompted a publisher in Winnipeg to call me and ask if I wanted to do something for them about language,” said Morton.
This turned into his first non-fiction book, entitled Cupboard Love a Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities. It would go on to be nominated for a Julia Child Award.
Morton followed, writing four non-fiction books between 1996-2006. After meeting the person who would become his partner, they moved from Winnipeg in 2005 when Morton took a job at the University of Waterloo.
There was a step back from writing in 2007 as Morton and his partner adopted four children.
“Our kids were adopted at older ages, so they took all of our attention. We put our writing careers on hiatus for those 16 years,” said Morton.
Once their children got old enough, Morton went back to writing and decided to write fiction.
“I had read so many novels to my kids that I wanted to try my hand at fiction,” said Morton. “I was getting older, and I found my memory wasn't what it used to be. I figured I wouldn't be able to keep facts in my head the way I did when I wrote non-fiction, so it made sense to leverage my imagination.”
After a year leave of absence, Morton wrote what became The Headmaster.
After sending the novel around Morton, he heard of Shadowpaw Press in Regina. As luck would have it, the publisher is Edward Willett, who was the editor of the Weyburn Review when Morton worked there.
“When I heard of Shadowpaw Press and this connection, I wanted to go with them,” said Morton. “It was a great decision. Ed is an amazing publisher and editor. He did an amazing job at finding the cover designer, the cover captures exactly the mood.”
Released in Feb. of 2024, The Headmasters is a dystopian young adult novel about a child named Maple in Northern Ontario, taking place sixty years after a catastrophe.
“I wanted to create a dilemma for humans. They are not just an enemy that is more powerful and evil, but it's an enemy that senses what you are thinking, and how do you fight back against that?” said Morton.
“Nobody ever talks about the past … when someone dies, their headmaster is transferred to someone else, but when they get transferred, so do the memories. If the new host starts to remember the memories of an old host, that can be catastrophic; they can potentially die … so that's another dilemma. They have no recollection of the past because it doesn’t get passed on,” continued Morton.
Morton based the protagonist Maple on his four children.
“The main protagonist Maple shows a tremendous amount of resilience,” said Morton. “She is the one who figures out how they can maybe fight back against the headmasters. The resilience that she shows was inspired by our four kids. They are amazing.”
Renowned author Rob Sawyer wrote the intro for Morton’s book.
“That meant so much to me,” said Morton. “He is a busy man who has his own books to write. He was very generous with his time.”
The Headmasters was recently nominated for the Arlene Barlin Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy, coordinated by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.
“I learned a few weeks ago that I was one of five finalists for this science fiction and fantasy award,” said Morton. “I was thrilled. It was an honour to be recognized. I looked at the four other people in my category, and they are all great authors and impressive-sounding books,” continued Morton.
The award ceremony will be held in late October in Toronto.
Morton has since finished another novel and is currently shopping around for a publisher and half-finished another novel.
