''The Sleeping Car Porter'' is a novel by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

writer

Suzette Mayr Suzette Mayr is a Canadian novelist who has written five critically acclaimed novels. Currently a professor at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Arts, Mayr's works have both won and been nominated for several literary awards. Biography S ...

, published in 2022 by Coach House Books.Eric Volmers
"Giller-shortlisted Calgary author Suzette Mayr's long journey to The Sleeping Car Porter"
''

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The ...

'', October 22, 2022. Set in the 1920s, the novel centres on Baxter, a

Black Canadian Black Canadians (also known as Caribbean-Canadians or Afro-Canadians) are people of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though t ...

and closeted gay immigrant from the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

who is working as a railway porter to save money to fund his dream of getting educated as a

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the mouth, oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofaci ...

. Mayr credited poet

Fred Wah Frederick James Wah, OC, (born January 23, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, scholar and former Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. Life Wah was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, but grew up in the interior (West Kootenay) of British Columbi ...

with having given her the original suggestion to write about railway porters, and consulted books such as

Cecil Foster Cecil Foster (born September 26, 1954) is a Canadian novelist, essayist, journalist, Public intellectual and scholar. He is Chairman of the Department of Transnational Studies at the University of Buffalo. Early life and education Foster was b ...

's ''They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada'', Stanley G. Grizzle's ''My Name's Not George: The Story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in Canada'' and Johnnie F. Kirvin's ''Hey Boy! Hey George: The Pullman Porter'' for insight into the job and its working conditions. She also likened the process of writing the novel to a sort of

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

, telling ''

Xtra! ''Xtra Magazine'' (formerly ''DailyXtra'' and ''Xtra!'') is an LGBTQ-focused digital publication and former print newspaper published by Pink Triangle Press in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The publication is a continuation of the company's former pr ...

'' that "Part of being a queer person is trying to find your ancestors and it’s not necessarily about people you are biologically related to but people in the queer community who came before you and knowing that you have a place and you’re not the first and you’re not the only one. It was me excavating a past to find people like me."Tara-Michelle Ziniuk
"Queer author Suzette Mayr wins the biggest literary prize in Canada"
''

'', November 8, 2022. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' named it one of the top ten works of fiction published in 2022.

Awards

It was the winner of the 2022

Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...

. It was the first LGBTQ-themed novel, and Mayr the first LGBTQ-identified writer, ever to win the Giller. It was longlisted for the inaugural

Carol Shields Prize for Fiction The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction is a North American literary award, created in 2020 to honour literature by women.Scottie Andrew"A new literary prize will award more than $100,000 to a North American writer. The only criteria? No men". CNN, Feb ...

in 2023.Deborah Dundas
"5 Canadians nominated for first Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for women and non-binary writers, worth $150,000 (U.S.)"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', March 8. 2023.

References

External links

''The Sleeping Car Porter''
at Coach House Books {{DEFAULTSORT:Sleeping Car Porter, The 2022 Canadian novels Black Canadian literature Canadian LGBT novels Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning works Novels set in the 1920s Novels set in Canada 2020s LGBT novels