NORTH BATTLEFORD — Talented author Miguel Fenrich, from North Battleford and currently living in Saskatoon, has been honoured with the Tony and Herb Rainbow Award for Literary and Visual Artists through the Saskatchewan Foundation for the Arts.
This award supports emerging and mid-career LGBTQ2S+ literary and visual artists. Its purpose is to promote and encourage the artistic and economic well-being of LGBTQ2S+ artists in Saskatchewan.
“I’m mindful that with this award, I join a long, weaving line of talented artists from across our vibrant province; of those before me, of course, and those who will follow me,” Fenrich said in the release. “It’s a gift to be a part of this artistic tapestry that gives Saskatchewan so much joy, so much truth, so much beauty and so much life.”
The value of the award if $5,000. The award will help support Fenrich as he embarks on his third novel, tentatively titled 273 Days. The novel is about a young queer man from Western Canada after he is diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides in his final months (273 days) to travel across Canada on a road trip to mark his end-of-life journey.
Fenrich, who is 23, previously wrote two other books — Blue: a Novel, and What Lies in the Valley.
He is the 43rd president of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal and a 2025 CBC Future 40 winner. He is also the owner of arts-based consulting company, House of Fenrich.
Fenrich says he hopes his new book helps raise queer voices in Canada.
“I’m also woefully aware that queerness is under attack in Saskatchewan, Canada and around the world,” he said. “As such, with this support for queer voices, it’s a privilege to continue working on a project I hope impacts Canadians and calls us to care deeply about one another.”
“With deep gratitude, I must also acknowledge the generosity of both Anthony Bidulka and Herb McFaull who’ve made this award possible. The Tony and Herb Rainbow Award offers me time to work on this project at a critical moment in my writing career.
