Vincent Lam accepts the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize in TorontoTuesday night. Lam's Giller-winning stories to become TV dramaUpdated Fri. Nov. 10 2006 9:41 PM ET Canadian Press TORONTO -- "Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures," the Giller-winning short story collection by Toronto doctor Vincent Lam, will be developed into a drama series for the Movie Network, Shaftesbury Films announced Friday. "I'm thrilled to see that my book has started to take on a life of its own," Lam, an emergency room doctor who helped battle the city's 2003 SARS crisis, said in a statement. "Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures" (Doubleday Canada) comprises 12 interconnected stories about the struggles faced by a group of up-and-coming physicians. The book is Lam's debut and took home the $40,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize earlier this week. "We're always looking for fresh new characters on which to base a television series. We believe we have found this in Vincent Lam's book which provides us with a fresh take on the medical profession," said Christina Jennings of Toronto-based Shaftesbury Films. Lam's book is well-suited to the Movie Network, added Michelle Marion, a spokeswoman for the pay-TV channel. "'ER' is a medical drama for conventional television. 'Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures' is a medical drama for pay television," she said. "You think you are in for a journey through the expected world of what you know about doctors and medicine, and instead you are treated to an unexpected, almost metaphoric journey of doctors dealing with powerful internal conflict and beautiful human frailty in ways that catch the reader off-guard." Lam's writing career received a significant boost about three years ago when he met acclaimed author Margaret Atwood while working as a doctor on a ship. She agreed to read his manuscript and has continued to support his career. Shaftesbury Films, coincidentally, recently co-produced a TV movie of Atwood's "The Robber Bride," set to air on CBC early next year. Lam has said he has no plans to give up his medical career in favour of full-time writing.
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St. Pius X grad wins Giller Prize for debut novel MARGARET SAMBOL NTW Staff Dr. Vincent Lam, the 2006 Giller Prize winner, has some simple advice for students attending his former high school St. Pius X in Nepean: read a lot of books.
Lam was awarded the prize at a Nov. 7 gala for his fiction debut Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. He didn’t expect to win so he didn’t have a speech prepared. “It was quite a shock,” Lam says. “I don’t think it hit me for a full day or two. It was kind of like I was watching myself hugging my wife and my publisher. It was unreal – like it was a movie about me.” The book is a collection of 12 short stories that follow the lives of four medical students, Chen, Ming, Fitz and Sri, as they take on new challenges and transition into their lives as doctors. Lam, who now lives in Toronto with his wife, grew up in Ottawa and attended several Nepean schools. He says the education he received here helped him to succeed. “I definitely learned how to learn from my education at Our Lady of Good Counsel (now closed), St. Rita, Frank Ryan and St. Pius. In conjunction with my violin lessons, it taught me how to learn and how to be self-critical,” Lam says. Some of Lam’s memories from his time in Ottawa made their way into Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures in a more fictionalized version. One of the stories, the Long Migration, tells of Chen visiting his grandfather in Australia, which draws on some of the emotions Lam felt while making a similar trip as a young man. ALWAYS A GOOD WRITER Lam recently received a note from his former English teacher at St. Pius, Steve Durnin, which included some marking sheets from high school. Lam’s good grade on a short story assignment may have foretold his future success in writing. “Steve Durnin taught me it’s okay to do weird things and throw all your energy at it. He would still see the value in it,” Lam says. Durnin says Lam was always a good writer, but had terrible penmanship. “He was a very intelligent student. He was light years ahead of everybody else,” Durnin says. When Lam was in Grade 9, he was gave Durnin violin lessons. Durnin describes Lam as the kind of student who could do anything he put his mind to, whether that was nuclear physics or medicine. “If I had 30 like him in a class, I’d think I’d died and gone to heaven,” Durnin says. Lam also credits one of his elementary school teachers with recognizing that he wasn’t challenged enough in his class. She arranged for him to do his regular class work in the morning and attend the next grade’s classes in the afternoon so he was able to pass both grades in one year. That experience gave Lam a valuable lesson. “If you’re not challenged you should try harder challenges and not just rest easy,” Lam says. ROLE MODEL The Giller Prize comes with the largest purse of any literary fiction award in Canada with $40,000 for the winner, and $2,500 for each of the four finalists. It also comes with the unofficial title of role model to a lot of aspiring writers. However, Lam says his medical training has prepared him somewhat for that position. “I don’t think you choose that role. I think it reveals itself to you in a sudden slip of perspective,” Lam says. He explains how that transition happens several times in medical training going from a medical student to a resident to staff at a hospital. “People who are only three steps behind you in their training look to you for direction. You suddenly realize the responsibility you have, and not just to patients.” Now that Lam is on staff in a emergency room in Toronto, he’s become more comfortable with the idea of being a teacher. However, his advice to others comes from his experience as a parent. “I really encourage people to read to their kids and spend time telling stories. It’s such an incredible thing to do together as a family,” Lam says. INSPIRING FUTURE WRITERS Durnin has read Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures and says he would consider using it in his upper level English classes next semester. “I was very impressed with both the idea and the content style. I was surprised that this was his first piece of writing. He has mastered the craft of fiction. The short stories knit into a novel,” Durnin says. Durnin is hoping having a Giller Prize winner as an alumnus of St. Pius will motivate his current students. “Often times students are unaware of the potential and talent they have. Lots of kids do writing and poetry, but most are very personal, quiet and humble about it,” Durnin says, adding that Lam’s example shows students that writing can be a way of life. http://www.nepeanthisweek.com/Papers/ntw-20061121.pdf
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