Laurier names Hilary Peach winner of prestigious 2023 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction

Feb. 15, 2024
For Immediate Release

WATERLOO — Wilfrid Laurier University has named author Hilary Peach the winner of its 2023 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction for her book Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood. The $10,000 prize recognizes Canadian writers for a first or second work of creative non-fiction that includes a Canadian locale or significance.

In her memoir, published by Anvil Press, Peach takes the reader on a lively journey through her nearly 30 years as a boilermaker, a lucrative but tough trade that saw her follow jobs across North America. With wit, humour and pull-no-punches honesty – skills she honed to thrive in a male-dominated field – Peach describes both the rigours and extremes of a boilermaker’s work, welding industrial metal structures. Frequently funny and often gritty, this memoir leaves the reader informed, entertained and greatly admiring of those who undertake this unseen but invaluable work.

“I love a book that surprises me, and in this case, I was very surprised by how engrossed I became in the life of an itinerant boilermaker,” said Bruce Gillespie, an award juror and associate professor in the User Experience Design program at Laurier’s Brantford campus. “That the book is so engaging is a testament to Peach’s skill as an author. She gives us unrestricted access to dangerous, high-stress workplaces that we would otherwise never see for ourselves and shows us the challenges that women face there to be taken seriously and treated as equals.”

Other jurors for the 2023 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction were Sharon Brown, former librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University, and Harry Froklage, former associate director, development, in the Faculty of Arts.

“At its heart, Thick Skin is a story of resilience that I think will resonate with a lot of readers,” said Gavin Brockett, vice-dean of the Faculty of Arts. “Most of us will never be called upon to repair power plants or cargo ships, but through Peach’s writing we can appreciate the strength and determination required to chart your own path and persist in the face of resistance.”

An award ceremony and reception honouring Peach will be held on March 27 at 1:30 p.m. in the Lodge Administration Building (45 Lodge St.) on Laurier’s Waterloo campus.

Established and endowed by the late writer and award-winning journalist Edna Staebler in 1991, the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction is administered by Laurier and the oldest national literary award bestowed by a university in Canada.

Learn more about the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction.