For Immediate Release
February 20, 2008

Quill & Quire, the Canadian publishing trade journal, has just released (as the cover story in its March 2008 issue) its first-ever list of "The CanLit 30: The Most Influential, Innovative, and Just Plain Powerful People in Canadian Publishing."

Robert J. Sawyer, a Nebula and Hugo Award-winning science-fiction writer from Mississauga, Ontario, is included on the list. In its write-up about Sawyer, Quill & Quire said, "When Penguin Canada snatched up domestic rights to science fiction giant Robert J. Sawyer last year, it felt like the Canuck industry was finally waking up to an entire genre. Not that Sawyer really needed the nod: he already sells more than respectably and has a shelf full of major sci-fi prizes. As a generous mentor to other writers, the proprietor of his own eponymous imprint at Red Deer Press, and a frequent media pundit, Sawyer is the public face of Canadian sci-fi."

Only two other authors made the 30-person list: Margaret Atwood and Douglas Coupland. Among the other people named were Heather Reisman, CEO of Canada's largest bookstore chain, Chapters/Indigo; Martin Levin, book-review editor for The Globe and Mail; Geoffrey Taylor, artistic director of the International Festival of Authors; and powerhouse literary agent Michael Levine. Sawyer's 17th novel, Rollback, has just been released in paperback by Tor and is on the Preliminary Nebula Award Ballot.

Read more about "The CanLit 30" in Robert J. Sawyer's blog.