Amanda Lewis

I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy because The Amateurs by Liz Harmer is up for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. I acquired and edited this novel for Knopf Canada. Huge congrats, Liz!

Sierra Club BC invited me to write a guest blog post about my Tracking Giants project. I focused on conservation as a way of protecting these Champions, and also gave some tips on respecting landscapes when searching for big trees. Check it out!

It was a total pleasure to speak about my Tracking Giants project at the PoCo Heritage Museum and Archives’ Arborium Symposium on Saturday. The symposium accompanies the current natural history exhibit, The Secret Life of Trees. I spoke about searching for big trees, and the challenges of preserving these Champions. Thanks to the organizers!

In a recent episode of her podcast, Hurry Slowly, Jocelyn K. Glei examines the difference between rules and principles. She sees rules as “a narrowly circumscribed set of actions for how you can accomplish a certain thing,” whereas “principles are broadly defined values or ideas that you believe in that govern your behaviour and actions.” […]

I’m always angling for books about “simple living.” I’ve read numerous approaches over the years—books on minimalism, “volunteer simplicity,” Scandinavian interiors, monasticism, and yes “sparking joy.” I recently read a book on the simplicity inherent in fly fishing using tenkara: a telescoping bamboo pole, line, and fly. I don’t have any interest in learning to […]

Happy news! Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris is a finalist for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. I acquired and edited this book for Knopf Canada. It also won the RBC Taylor Prize. 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph is a finalist for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ […]

Ever have watered-down lemonade? Even though it seems like everyone would enjoy something as innocuous as lemon-tinged water, it has been diluted to the point where no one would really like it, let alone pay for it. Watered-down lemonade is neither sweet nor tangy, enticing no palate. Similarly, in the spirit of appealing to numerous audiences, […]

Soon after moving to Toronto, I came across a copy of Patrick Lane’s memoir, There Is a Season. I started reading and then, electrified after only a few sentences, felt compelled to stop and copy what I was reading onto the surface closest at hand—shards of a white ceramic lamp that had recently broken in […]

Quill & Quire says it all. I am verklempt. Kate Harris has won the $25,000 RBC Taylor Prize for her debut book, Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road (Knopf Canada), which follows the modern-day explorer on her 14-month journey travelling Marco Polo’s Silk Road by bicycle. The Rhodes scholar, who lives off-grid […]

How many times, when reading a non-fiction book, have you thought, This would have made a great magazine article. Meaning: this book has one good idea that could have been executed so well in a shorter format. In some cases, that book grew out of a magazine article. An agent or editor decided the writer […]