Michael Van Rooy (1968-2011) won the 2009 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. His first book, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, won the 2006 Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Writer, was a finalist for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and has been recently optioned by Big Mind Films to make a full-length feature film. Before settling on a writing career, Michael studied history at the University of Manitoba. He passed away suddenly in 2011.