BOOKS ——————————————————————1989-2020

Figure 1, published February 2017

The book tells the history of the Order of Canada as the nation’s highest civilian honour marks the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. Almost seven thousand citizens have received the award since 1967. The fifty recipients profiled here illustrate the range and depth of their accomplishment. With stunning photography. French translation by Daniel Poliquin.

Douglas & McIntyre, published Spring 2010.

This book offers both a celebration and a critique of volunteering and philanthropy in the modern world. A film option on the book was sold to a Canadian film-maker, 90th Parallel Productions in 2008.

The Big Red Horse, HarperCollins, 2007

A book about the racehorse Secretariat and his devoted groom, Eddie Sweat. Aimed at a young audience.

A book about the great Thoroughbred racehorse and his relationship with the man who was closest to him. Also published in Spring 2007 in the U.S. by St. Martin’s Press. A film option was sold in the winter of 2009 to Little Dog Productions, Inc., a Canadian documentary film company. An audio book came out in 2017.

A Young Adult novel about a habitant girl and her two horses who get caught up in the American Civil War.

A personal essay on the log cabin (mine and others) as a place of refuge.

A personal and historical look at violence in hockey.

The book tells two stories: the history of Canada’s heritage horse and my own tale of buying, at the age of fifty, my first horse — a cheval canadien.

Random House and HarperCollins (U.S.A.), 1998
A wide-ranging look at the history, nature and culture of the horse-human bond.
A Globe and Mail best-seller, the book was also published in Germany, Spain, and throughout Latin America and continues to sell.

A book for young readers about horses and our bond with them.

A practical and personal book about country life based on my experience of living with my wife and son  in the village of Camden East, Ontario between 1981 and 1996.

A book for young adult readers about the life of the horse ridden by the Canadian equestrian Ian Millar. The book has been reprinted several times. To date, it has sold almost 90,000 copies.

Co-author /Ghostwriter

Simon & Schuster, November 2015

Robert Bateman with Lawrence Scanlan as ghostwriter. The book tells the life story of the acclaimed Canadian artist.

HarperCollins, published Spring 2015.

Deanna Lennox with Lawrence Scanlan as ghostwriter. The story of an RCMP officer who dealt with her job-induced trauma, in part, by connecting to horses.

HarperCollins, published Fall 2013.

Richard Peddie with Lawrence Scanlan. The life and times of the man at the helm of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment for 15 years, until 2012.

Scribner’s (U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia). First published May 2012 and republished several times since, most recently in 2019. This book tells the story of a remarkable Canadian woman, Barbara Arrowsmith Young, who developed a unique and pioneering program to address learning disorders. Young herself had several crippling brain deficits for twenty-eight years of her life before devising unusual brain gymnastics that effectively rewired her own brain.

Rights since sold in U.S. and Australia.
This book tells the dramatic story of how a remote community in northern British Columbia came to the rescue of two horses trapped high atop a mountain in mid-winter. Co-author Birgit Stutz played a key role in the eight-day saga, which involved digging a metre-wide, kilometre-long trench through six-foot-deep snow in extremely harsh conditions. The story grabbed the attention of media around the world. A film option was sold to a Canadian film-maker, Big Coat Productions, in February of 2010.

This account of the Melissa Hawach story — her two pre-school daughters had been kidnapped by their father and taken into war-torn Lebanon — stayed on The Globe and Mail’s bestseller list for ten weeks in the summer of 2008.

The story of a woman’s remarkable recovery from a tragic fire and her journey to a new life as a trick-horse trainer.

As the book’s ghost writer (in collaboration with horseman Monty Roberts, whose life the book chronicles), wrote a long Introduction and Epilogue. The book remained on the best-seller lists of The New York Times, Maclean’s, The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail for more than a year. To date, the book has sold more than one million copies in North America.

With equestrian Ian Millar. The book made The Globe and Mail‘s top-ten list.

BROADCASTING—————————————1988-1989, 1993-1995

Responsible for suggesting authors, reading their works, and preparing and editing taped interviews.

Responsible for author interviews and issues related to books. Worked with host Peter Gzowski in choosing books and authors for treatment on air. Generated ideas that resulted in other items, including an unprecedented series of six programs on the world of the deaf, which put deaf guests (and their interpreters) on national radio.

Read letters sent in by listeners, 1994
Was part of Morningside’s on-air book panel, 1990 and 1991

Wrote brief essays and read them on the air, 1993-1995

MAGAZINES—————————————-January 1990 to May 1993

Conceived, assigned and edited award-winning stories for this bi-monthly national magazine about rural life. Entrusted with day-to-day operations of the magazine. Edited all investigative features, plus several departments while overseeing the work of one full-time and two half-time editors.

Wrote features, news stories, book reviews, profiles and occasional editorials.

NEWSPAPERS———————————–December 1977 to July 1988

Expanded the newspaper’s book section into what The Writers’ Union of Canada called (following a national survey) the best in the country. Wrote a weekly column in The Whig-Standard Magazine inspired by interviews with authors and my own reading.

Wrote headlines and photo captions, edited copy, laid out op-ed pages.

As editor of this daily newspaper in the Interior of British Columbia, supervised a staff of six, edited and laid out copy, wrote editorials and columns, and ran the dark room.

Covered city hall, wrote news and feature stories, and took photographs.

TRADE PUBLICATIONS——————January 1973 to December 1976

Freelance Journalism——————————————— 1976 to 2019

EDUCATION———————————————————1968 to 1972

COMMUNITY SERVICE——————————————-1969 to 2019

• Have lectured at Queen’s University, McGill, Brock, Dalhousie, and Mount Royal University in Calgary as well as high schools in Kingston and Picton — on philanthropy 2010-2015.
• Taught high school classes on interviewing techniques, profile-writing, journalism, and book publishing as part of summer courses offered to select secondary students.
• Conducted two-day sessions on creative writing for both primary and secondary school students in Napanee, Ontario.
• Taught classes to aspiring adult writers at the Kingston Writers’ School.
• Gave a workshop to aspiring writers. Organized by the Kingston Arts Council.
• Taught writing classes inside Collins Bay Penitentiary and spoke to book clubs at Pittsburgh Institution and Millhaven Penitentiary
• Mentored a high school student during the spring of 2016 as part of a program offered by the Kingston WritersFest.

• Served on the board of Wintergreen Studios, a wilderness education and retreat centre north of Kingston, Ontario: 2013-2018.
• Served on a committee that selects the best of stories written by high school students in Gananoque, Ontario, 2006 and 2007.
• Served as poet laureate and participated in Frontier College’s 2007 bonspiel in Toronto. Fund-raiser for literacy.
• Wrote an essay for The Library Book, a chapbook fund-raiser for the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, 2003.
• Coached little league baseball teams and minor league hockey teams in the Napanee area and Kingston between 1993 and 2004.
• Wrote an essay for Millenium Lectures 2000, a fund-raiser for Glendon College. My subject: How radical students of the ’60s are finding satisfaction today through community involvement and volunteering.
• Have worked, since 1985, as a volunteer with Horizons of Friendship — a non-governmental organization based in Cobourg, Ontario that endeavours to better the lot of the poor in Central America and Mexico. For the past twenty years, have served on the organizing commitee and emceed a gala literary event in Kingston that has featured Canadian artists such as Margaret Atwood, Bruce Cockburn, and Michael Ondaatje. These events have raised more than $250,000.
• From 1992 to 1997, served on a committee in the village of Camden East, Ontario that acted as a virtual board of governors, fund-raising co-ordinator, and guiding force for a community school that continued to operate long after the publicly funded school had been shut down.
• In 1969 and 1970, organized Glendon College’s “Shinerama” fund-raiser for the Canadian Cystic Fribrosis Foundation. This was a major responsibility that involved mobilizing hundreds of students to shine shoes at various locations around the city, dropping off supplies, and collecting money raised.

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS—————————————–1986-2019

• Served on two Canada Council juries, plus one Ontario Arts Council jury, 1989-1991.
• Served on several prize juries, including the Marian Engel Award, 1986.
• Acted as Judge, Western Magazine Awards, 1993 and 1994.
• Member of PEN (Poets, Essayists and Novelists).
• Member of The Writers’ Union of Canada. As Ontario rep, I sat on National Council, 2008-2010.
• Served on the jury for the Ottawa Book Award, non-fiction category, 2009
• Served as the judge of creative non-fiction entries in contest held by the literary magazine, Prairie Fire, 2012.
• Member of the Board of Directors, Kingston WritersFest: 2013 to 2018.

PUBLISHING AWARDS———————————————-1991-

• The 2007 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award
• The Horse’s Shadow was shortlisted and was also selected as a “choice” title by the Canadian Childrens’ Book Centre in 2006.Silver, National Magazine Awards, 1996
• Travel category, for “Why Humans Love Horses” in Equinox magazine.Gold, National Magazine Awards, 1991
• Environment category, for “The Killing Fields”(about hazards posed by electromagnetic radiation), in Harrowsmith magazine.Silver, National Magazine Awards, 1991
• Science, Health and Medicine category, for “The Killing Fields” in Harrowsmith magazine. Honourable Mention, The Canadian Association of Journalists, 1991, Magazines category, for “The Killing Fields” in Harrowsmith magazine.