Bokma’s “My Year Of Living Spiritually: One Woman’s Secular Quest for a More Soulful Life” (Douglas & McIntyre) took the prize in the non-fiction category, as well as the Kerry Schooley Book Award for the work “most evocative of the Hamilton region.” The Hamilton Literary Awards are an annual literary event with the goal of recognizing and celebrating the best of Hamilton’s published authors. The Awards are presented to books of outstanding merit and quality in the categories of Fiction, Poetry and Non-fiction by authors residing in Hamilton, Hamilton Region and on the Six Nations.
Judges praised Bokma’s work for its “good humour and personal candour … as we learn much about seeking meaning and balance in life and finding comfort and solace in our relationships with family, friends and community.”
In My Year of Living Spiritually, Bokma documents a diverse range of soulful first-person experiences—from taking a dip in Thoreau’s Walden Pond, to trying magic mushrooms for the first time, booking herself into a remote treehouse as an experiment in solitude, singing in a deathbed choir and enrolling in a week-long witch camp—in an entertaining and enlightening way that will compel readers (non-believers and believers alike) to try a few spiritual practices of their own. Along the way, she reconsiders key relationships in her life and begins to experience the greater depth of meaning, connection, gratitude, simplicity and inner peace that we all long for. Readers will find it an inspiring roadmap for their own spiritual journeys.
Anne Bokma is an internationally recognized award-winning freelance journalist who specializes in writing on spiritual topics. She’s the “Spiritual but Secular” columnist for Broadview (previously the United Church Observer) and her articles have appeared in many of Canada’s leading national magazines and newspapers, including the Toronto Star, Canadian Living, Best Health, Reader’s Digest, Today’s Parent, MoneySense and Chatelaine. She is a dynamic public speaker and the founder of the popular 6-Minute Memoir “speed storytelling for a cause,” a charitable series of events which brings together storytellers to share tales on a theme. Anne is represented by Amy Tompkins.
To see the full list of awardees, please visit: https://www.hamiltonartscouncil.ca/literary-awards