prize to be awarded june 4, 2026
Winter Sky nominated for Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction
The Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction, established in 2016, recognizes excellent short story collections by Atlantic Canadian writers. Administered by the Cabot Trail Writers Festival and the Atlantic Book Awards, the winner will be announced at the Atlantic Book Awards.
AVAILABLE NOW
"Thompson's timeless prose glimmers with clarity as she explores the nuance and complexity of a fraught, beloved season."
– DEBORAH HEMMING, AUTHOR OF GODDESS
just announced
Winner of 2025
Evergreen Award
Learn more about Forest of Reading awards and fellow nominated works.
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About Shelley Thompson
Shelley Thompson is based in Wolfville, Mi'kma'ki.
Thompson has been a writer all her life: her first attempt at publication was rewarded with a letter from the editor of Chatelaine when she was ten, having submitted her poem CLOUDS. The very kind editor of the magazine took the time to write a long letter to the 10-year-old genius, encouraging her to keep writing!
And so she did.
Her first novel ROAR was published in 2023 by Nimbus/Vagrant and drew strongly on Thompson’s experience as the parent of a young trans man in rural Nova Scotia. ROAR was nominated for The Margaret & John Savage First Book Award, and for the Forest of Reading’s Evergreen Award.
Her latest book, WINTER SKY, is a collection of short stories, reflecting the season’s contrasts: the light and the dark, the complexity, and the comfort. A chance encounter on a bus during a winter storm leads to the unravelling of a family mystery decades old. An unexpected trio of carollers visits the home of a sick child on Christmas Eve, bringing an unexpected gift. The constellations provide company for a prairie boy on his frigid early-morning walks to school. A couple’s never-ending home renovation binds them to a carpenter understands exactly what the heart needs, to build comfort and joy. Stories that reflect our own love and confusion about this season.
She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, The Canadian Film Centre, The Writers’ Lab NYC, The Women in the Directors Chair and the Whistler Producers Lab.
Her company, Rusty Tractor Productions, focuses on marginalised voices - and in particular the stories of rural women. Thompson is married to writer/director/actor Ed Thomason and is parent to singer/songwriter T. Thomason. Shelley is a committed advocate for the LGBTQ+2SP community.
Winter Sky: Stories for the Season
AVAILABLE NOW | AUDIOBOOK COMING SOON
From celebrated filmmaker, actor, and novelist Shelley Thompson comes a collection of stories, both cherished and fresh as new-fallen snow. A blend of historical and contemporary, written in breathtaking prose, the stories in Winter Sky reflect the season’s contrasts: the light and the dark, the complexity and the comfort.
Just like the season itself, these stories bring heartache and delight, and the wonder of gazing up at a winter’s sky.
Listen to a sneak peek of Winter Sky
AUDIOBOOK COMING SOON
Click an image below to start listening
“Wow. Wow. Wow. I want to roar: READ THIS BOOK.”
– Sheree Fitch, Winner of the Order of Canada for outstanding contributions to the Canadian literary community
A novel inspired by the original screenplay for the award-winning feature film Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor, about a young trans woman who returns to her family farm in the wake of her mother’s death, written by celebrated actor and screenwriter Shelley Thompson.
WINNER OF FOREST OF READING'S 2025 EVERGREEN AWARD
“ROAR is also a story about community; Thompson resists romanticizing it, doesn’t shy away from exposing its underbelly – but she also reveals its capacity for acceptance and change. We’ve always needed this story, but now we need it more than ever.”
– Jeanette Lynes, Author of The Apothecary’s Garden
“Fierce, tender, brave, and incendiary, ROAR is a story for these fractious times that couldn’t be more true.”
– Carol Bruneau, Author of brighten the Corner Where You Are
Have a book club?
Shelley is available to join book clubs via Zoom or in-person to talk about her work.
Audiobooks narrated by Shelley Thompson
For the years Shelley Thompson lived in the UK, much of her work was as a narrator of audiobooks for the BBC, Chivers, Oxford and Cambridge Press, and then back at home, the CBC.
Shelley reads and produces her own writing and others’: recently, Lesley Crewe’s THE SPOON STEALER (for Audible, Amazon, Audiobooks.com and more).
