"Wabusk Outside the Wire / Nanook Looking In" is Joseph Boyden's contribution to Northwords, a cross-platform project that takes urban Canadian writers to some of the world's most extreme environments.

Introduced by award-winning journalist and radio personality Shelagh Rogers, Northwords is a collection of stories written by acclaimed Canadian authors as they experienced one of Canada’s most awe-inspiring northern national parks Torngat Mountains National Park, the country’s newest national park, and a place steeped in geological and human history. The cross-platform project, which includes a documentary film that follows the authors as they explored the harsh and stunning terrain, had adventures, and created these new works, adds to the continuing story of the North. The stories explore the idea of the North, and what happens when the country’s best writers tackle its most overwhelmingly beautiful places.

Taking advantage of opportunities presented by transmedia integration, users can experience the stories in the writers’ own words through Anansi Digital, as well as learn more about their processes and what inspired them through interactive content. Users will have access to film and audio content, and together, these related media will create a larger story web, allowing the audience to truly immerse themselves in the sights, sounds, and stories of the North.

Joseph Boyden's first novel, Three Day Road, was selected for the Today Show Book Club, won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the CBA Libris Fiction Book of the Year Award, the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. His second novel, Through Black Spruce, was awarded the Scotiabank Giller Prize and named the Canadian Booksellers Association Fiction Book of the Year; it also earned him the CBA’s Author of the Year Award. His most recent novel, The Orenda, won Canada Reads and was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Boyden divides his time between Northern Ontario and Louisiana.

Joseph Boyden's profile page