Andrew
Steinmetz
Born in Montréal, Andrew Steinmetz is the author of a memoir, two collections of poetry, and a novel, Eva’s Threepenny Theatre, which tells the story of his great-aunt Eva who performed in one of the first touring productions of Bertolt Brecht’s masterpiece The Threepenny Opera. An unusual fiction about memoir, Eva’s Threepenny Theatre won the 2009 City of Ottawa Book Award and was a finalist for the 2009 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Steinmetz is also the founding editor of Esplanade Books, the fiction imprint at Véhicule Press. He lives in Ottawa.
Award History
2013 Finalist
Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfictionfor This Great Escape: The Case of Michael Paryla
Jury Citation
“The stated purpose of Andrew Steinmetz’s This Great Escape is simple – to profile the actor Michael Paryla, a distant relative of the author, whose crowning glory (just before his sudden and possibly accidental death from an overdose in Hamburg) was an uncredited 57-second appearance in the iconic WWII movie The Great Escape. But under Steinmetz’s obsessive, poetic gaze, the focus gradually expands to capture both writer and reader in the frame. In this innovative and unexpectedly funny book, no one, not even the most insignificant bit player, makes a clean escape.” – 2013 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction Jury (Hal Niedzviecki, Candace Savage, and Andreas Schroeder)
