Roy MacGregor
Roy MacGregor is a Canadian author of fiction and non-fiction. He was born in Whitney, Ontario, in 1948 and grew up in Huntsville, Ontario.[1] His work tends to focus on Canadian topics; Shelagh Rogers has dubbed him the "heir to Peter Gzowski". He has a longstanding interest in the life of Tom Thomson, and has written both a novel and a biography exploring the artist's life and mysterious death.[2]
MacGregor has also been called "the Wayne Gretzky of hockey writing" [3] and the Washington Post once declared him to be "the closest thing there is to a poet laureate of Canadian hockey."[4] In 2012 he was awarded the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association and named the media honouree to the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2015 he was named to the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame as winner of the Brian Williams Media Award.[5] He is also a member of the Huntsville Sports Hall of Fame, Huntsville being the small town where he played competitive hockey, lacrosse and baseball. In 1960, he played - as a second- and third-liner - on the Huntsville team that won the all-Ontario Pee Wee 'A' lacrosse championship.
He is the winner of multiple awards for his writing, including the prestigious Rutstrum Award, which is given out every five years to the best book on wilderness writing in North America. MacGregor won in 2001 for his memoir on his father, A Life in the Bush.[6] MacGregor is a multiple winner of National Magazine Awards, National Newspaper Awards and twice was awarded the ACTRA "Nellie" as Canada's top television dramatist.
In 2005, Roy MacGregor was named an Officer in the Order of Canada. He and Ellen, an artist, live in Kanata, Ontario, and have four grown children and five grandchildren.
- Canoe Country: The Making of Canada. Random House, Canada, 2015.
- Wayne Gretzky's Ghost: And Other Tales from a Lifetime in Hockey. Random House, Canada, 2011.
- Northern Light: The Enduring Mystery of Tom Thomson and the Woman Who Loved Him. Random House, Canada, 2010
- Canadians: A Portrait of a Country and Its People. Viking/Penguin, Canada, 2007.
- The Dog and I: Confessions of a Best Friend. Penguin Books Canada, 2006.
- The Weekender: A Cottage Journal. Penguin Books Canada, 2005.
- Canoe Lake. Novel, originally published as Shorelines, McClelland & Stewart, Canada, 2002.
- Escape: In Search of the Natural Soul of Canada, McClelland & Stewart, Canada, 2002.
- A Loonie for Luck: A True Fable about Hockey and the Olympics. McClelland & Stewart, Canada, 2002.
- A Life in the Bush: Lessons from my father. Viking/Penguin, Canada, 1999.
- The Seven A.M. Practice. McClelland & Stewart, Canada, 1996.
- Valley Christmas. GenerTal Store Publishing House, Canada, 1996.
- The Home Team: Fathers, Sons & Hockey. Viking/Penguin, Canada, 1995.
- Road Games: A Year in the Life of the NHL. Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, Canada, 1993.
- The Road Home: Images of the Ottawa Valley. Photography by Steve Evans. General Store Publishing House, Canada, 1992.
- Quantity Time: Words of Comfort for Imperfect Parents. McClelland & Stewart, Canada, 1990.
- Chief: The Fearless Vision of Billy Diamond. Viking/Penguin, Canada, 1989.
- Home Game: Hockey and Life in Canada. Co-author with Ken Dryden, McClelland & Stewart, 1989.
- The Screech Owls Mystery Series for young readers. 29 volumes, 1995-2015.