Don Gillmor

Don Gillmor
EducationUniversity of Calgary (B.A., 1977)
Occupations
Writing career
Notable works
  • Kanata
  • Mount Pleasant
  • To the River
Notable awards

Don Gillmor is a Canadian journalist, novelist, historian, and writer of children's books; he is the recipient of many awards for his journalism and fiction.

Career

Gillmor's writing has appeared in Saturday Night, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Rolling Stone, GQ, National Geographic, and Toronto Life. He worked as senior editor at The Walrus. He also served on the faculty of the Literary Journalism Program at the Banff Centre.

Gillmor's magazine writing has earned him twelve National Magazine Awards, and he has been called "one of Canada’s most celebrated profile writers". In 2014, he won a National Newspaper Award for an article on baby boomers and suicide.

Gillmor is the author of five works of fiction: Kanata (2009), a Canadian historical epic; Mount Pleasant (2013), a comic novel about debt; Long Change (2015), which explores the life of an oilman (Gillmor worked on an oil rig in the late 1970s); Breaking and Entering (2023), a novel about a middle-aged woman who learns lock picking; and Cherry Beach (2026), a crime novel set in Toronto. He has also written books of non-fiction, including the two-volume work Canada: A People's History co-authored with Pierre Turgeon, which accompanied the award-winning television program of the same name and won the 2001 Libris Award for non-fiction book of the year. Among his children's books are Yuck, A Love Story (2000), which won the 2000 Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature, and The Fabulous Song (1996), which won a Mr. Christie's Book Award.

In 2019 he won the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction for his book To the River: Losing My Brother.

Personal life

Gillmor graduated from the University of Calgary with a B.A. in 1977.

He currently resides in Toronto.

Bibliography

Non-fiction

  • Canada: A People’s History, Volume I (2000)
  • Canada: A People’s History, Volume II (2001)
  • The Desire of Every Living Thing (2000)
  • Insight and On Site: The Work of Diamond + Schmitt (2008)
  • Stratford Behind the Scenes (2012)
  • To the River (2018)

Fiction

  • Kanata (2009)
  • Mount Pleasant (2013)
  • Long Change (2015)
  • Breaking and Entering (2023)
  • Cherry Beach (2026)

Children's books

  • The Trouble with Justin (1993)
  • When Vegetables Go Bad (1994)
  • The Fabulous Song (1995)
  • The Christmas Orange (1998)
  • Yuck, A Love Story (2000)
  • Sophie and the Sea Monster (2005)
  • The Boy Who Ate the World (2008)
  • The Time Time Stopped (2011)

References

  1. ↑ Barber, John (4 April 2013), "We will be forever in Don Gillmor’s debt", The Globe and Mail, retrieved 19 January 2016
  2. ↑ "Saturday Night fonds". McMaster University Library. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  3. ↑ Gillmor, Don (2009-12-01). "Review: The Writings of David Thompson: Volume 1". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  4. ↑ Gillmor, Don (2026-04-10). "Opinion: The war in Iran reminds us that we have always been hostages to oil". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  5. ↑ Gillmor, Don (2012-11-23). "The great lie of the populist politician". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  6. ↑ Gillmor, Don (2015-06-07). "Concussion business is booming, but players are still taking a hit". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  7. ↑ "Don Gillmor". Writers' Trust of Canada. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  8. ↑ Brown, Ian, ed. (2014). What I Meant to Say: The Private Lives of Men. Dundurn. ISBN 978-1-4597-2615-4.
  9. ↑ Trethewey, Laura (November 14, 2012). "Don Gillmor's 'sense of the mountains'". The Banff Centre Blog. Archived from the original on 2012-11-28.
  10. ↑ "Announcing the Winners of the 40th Anniversary National Magazine Awards". National Magazine Awards. 2017-05-27. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  11. ↑ Hampson, Sarah (2013-03-29). "In Don Gillmor's second novel, debt is the new death". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  12. ↑ "Star captures 13 National Newspaper Award nominations". The Toronto Star. 2014-03-17. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  13. ↑ Wiersema, Robert J. (2023-08-15). "When the sandwich generation gets squeezed, who knows what they'll do next? A Toronto summer of discontent never looked so funny". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  14. ↑ Armstrong, Bob (2009-11-07). "Nov 2009: Gillmor maps out blind luck, inevitability of history". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  15. ↑ Good, Alex (March 28, 2013). "Book Review: Mount Pleasant, by Don Gillmor". The National Post.
  16. 1 2 Volmers, Eric (October 12, 2015). "WordFest: Don Gillmor explores life of an oilman with Long Change". Calgary Herald.
  17. ↑ Counter, Rosemary (August 24, 2023). "'Breaking and Entering' Introduces a Lock-Picking Empty Nester Having a Midlife Crisis". Zoomer. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  18. ↑ Apa, Christina (2026-06-23). "Slain and Abel | A review of 'Cherry Beach' by Don Gillmor". Literary Review of Canada. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  19. ↑ Smith, Stephen (2004-02-16). "Canada: A People's History (Volume One)". Quill and Quire. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  20. ↑ "Winner History – Libris Awards" (PDF). Retail Council of Canada. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04.
  21. ↑ "The Fabulous Song". The Secret Mountain. Retrieved 2026-08-13.
  22. ↑ Van Koeverden, Jane (October 29, 2019). "Here are the winners of the 2019 Governor General's Literary Awards". CBC Books.
  23. ↑ "Arch Awards Past Recipients | Events". Alumni | University of Calgary. Retrieved 2026-08-13.
  24. ↑ Wiersema, Robert (2018-12-28). "Toronto author Don Gillmor explores topic of suicide in emotional new book". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2026-08-13.