I wanted to take a moment to step back from the book and movie reviews today to express my love for the community of people I’ve met since starting this blog in July 2008. I’m doing this not because anything is changing here but because on Wednesday evening I — many of us — lost one of my great blogging friends, someone who supported me from the beginning in more ways that one.
If you’ve spent much time looking at this site, you know Kevin Peterson, also known as KevinfromCanada. If you go back to my earliest posts, you’ll find comments from him, and he eventually honored me with an invitation to join him on the Shadow Giller Jury, something I’ve done with him each year since 2009. Our friendship has carried on over the years, and he gave me words of encouragement when I decided to uproot my family in 2012 to move back West and to an unknown, insecure future. Those of you who started reading this site more recently may not know him because he has been sick for the last couple of years and hasn’t been able to participate as much, though he still offered encouragement and support with emails.
I had the opportunity to sit down over the last day and put together a post for Kevin’s blog meant to let his readers know that he had passed away (it’s here). In doing that, though it’s been very sad and emotional, I’ve also been lit up with gratitude and happiness. I’ve reached out to many people who knew Kevin, and whom I’m happy to call my friends, even though I’ve never met most in person. We’ve talked a lot over the years, and it was nice to get together virtually to mourn and express love and appreciation for someone who meant a lot to the community.
We are all over the world, and it’s wonderful to come together over our shared passions. By blogging, I have met so many lovely people who enrich my life. Thanks to you all. I love this.
Thanks for sharing, Trevor…
Sad news
Lovely post, Trevor. It was horrible news, but very touching to see the response, including this.
Yes, indeed. He touched so many of us all over the world. I woke up this morning in Australia to your tribute on his blog and I am devastated even though I knew from the long silence that it was coming. A great loss to us all.
Incredibly sad to hear about this. I didn’t know Kevin personally, but I very much remember his regular presence as KevinfromCanada on the Booker forums. He was an informed and lively contributor, whose opinion I respected. He will be missed.
Like Archer, my encounters with Kevin were mainly in comments on posts and forums, but he’s a sad loss to the blogging community.
Sad news
As I said on Kevin’s blog – thank you for your thoughts!
I share the grief.
Thank you for your tribute to Kevin’s steady presence on these pages and in your life. As always, you lead by your example. Thank you, Trevor, for speaking of him here to us, for reminding us of his good life, good works, and good will.
I was only an occasional read of Kevin From Canada. Thank you for posting this. Many people come and go from Book Blogging. It seems I only rarely know what happens to those who leave. It’s nice to have this memorial post here.