H. Nigel Thomas is a retired professor of U. S. literature and the author of dozens of essays and thirteen books, comprising novels, poetry, short fiction, and literary criticism. His novels Spirits in the Dark (1993) and Easily Fooled (2015) were shortlisted for the Hugh MacLennan Fiction Award. The French translation of Lives: Whole and Otherwise--Des vies cassées--was a finalist for the Carbet des lycéens award. He is the founder and English-language coordinator of Lectures Logos Readings and the editor of Kola. In 2000, he received the Montreal Association of Business Persons and Professionals' Jackie Robinson Award for Professional of the year; in 2013, Université Laval's Hommage aux créateurs; in 2019, the Montreal Black Theatre Workshop's Martin Luther King Junior Achievement Award; in 2021, the Quebec Writers' Federation Judy Mappin Community Award; and, in 2022, the Canada Council for the Arts John Molson Prize for the Arts.