Description
Born in Fort Smith, NWT, bestselling author Richard Van Camp is a member of the Dogrib (Tłįchǫ) Dene Nation. A graduate of the En’owkin Centre’s writing program in Penticton, BC, he completed his BFA in writing at the University of Victoria and received an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. His work has won many awards and honours, among them the Blue Metropolis First Peoples Literary Prize and the title of Storyteller of the Year from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. In 2023 Van Camp was awarded the Order of the Northwest Territories – a fitting tribute to an author who continues to be inspired by growing up in Fort Smith NWT.
Van Camp’s recent spiritual thriller Y/A novel, Beast (Douglas & McIntyre, 2024), won the NorthWords NWT, Youth Category (2025); is nominated for a Forest of Reading, White Pine Award (2025); short-listed for a Governor General’s award (2025); short-listed for a Foreword INDIES; short-listed for the R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature (2026).
With a new introduction by Richard Van Camp and new stories that follow the main character, Larry Sole, in Fort Simmer.
Internationally praised and the subject of a critically acclaimed film, Richard Van Camp’s bestselling novel about coming of age in Canada’s North has achieved the status of an Indigenous classic and it was included in CBC’s list of 100 novels that make you proud to be Canadian.
The Lesser Blessed tracks the exploits of Larry Sole, a Dogrib teenager living in the small Northern town of Fort Simmer. After losing much of his memory in a violent accident, what he loves more than anything is reading, hearing and collecting stories. With no interest in booze or sports, he floats on the edges of high school life, sustained by his love of Iron Maiden and a hopeless passion for school hottie Juliet Hope. When good-looking, trouble-seeking Johnny Beck moves into town, he shakes up Larry’s dreamy existence and leads him into a life of sex, drugs and violence, bringing him face to face with memories that he's done his best to lose.
“The Lesser Blessed was one of the first novels written about and by a second-generation residential school survivor. I think the novel captures what it was like growing up in the 80s: the hope, the bullies, the crushes, the music, the house parties — with your whole life in front of you but you're already haunted. Thank goodness for Douglas & McIntyre and my editor Barbara Pulling. We created something so special that 30 years later Larry Sole's story is still touching hearts today.” – Richard Van Camp