Local author wins literary award

Posted By By Shawn Slaght

Posted 3 months ago

Photo submittedBanff author Lisa Hurst-Archer meets with actor LeVar Burton after receiving the Calgary Public Library Foundation Literary Award for best book by an Alberta author in the Children's and Teen literature category.

Banff author Lisa Hurst-Archer received the Calgary Public Library Foundation literary award Sept. 24 for best book by an Alberta author in the Children’s and Teen Literature category.

Hurst-Archer received the award for her debut book How To Make A Wave.

“I would just hope that other people would know that you can start things at any time in your life,” said Hurst-Archer. “I am in my 50s and it shows you can grow yourself.”

The book is a fiction novel written for young adults. It is set in Calgary where a young girl is learning to deal with self-esteem issues and keeps herself at a distance to everyone else.

“Eventually she discovers a family secret that makes her feel even worse about herself,” said Hurst-Archer. “She eventually comes to a place of self-acceptance.”

She was inspired to write the book because she believes that we all have a young person inside of us regardless of our age and that change is possible.

“We all have a person inside of us who feels not good enough or they don’t measure up,” said Hurst-Archer. “Maybe they feel ugly or don’t feel as good as other people. I think we all have a little bit of that inside of us and I was trying to get in touch with that.”

She said the book is also about coincidences, self-exploration, “feeling crummy,” reaching out, relationships and growing as a person.

One of the highlights of receiving the award was meeting with the keynote speaker, actor LeVar Burton. Burton has appeared in shows such as Roots, as well as the children’s show Reading Rainbow.

“He is a fabulous person,” she said. “It was a really fun night.”

Hurst-Archer’s novel How To Make A Wave is currently available at the Banff Public Library. When she isn’t writing, Hurst-Archer runs the children’s programs at the library.