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128 ratings | 4 reviews | avg rating:4.23

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Thomas Trofimuk

Goodreads Author

Born

Edmonton, Canada

Website

http://www.thomastrofimuk.com/

Twitter

trofs

Genre

Fiction, Mystery

Influences

Michael Ondaatje, Ernest Hemingway, John Irving

Member Since

November 2008

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• As a writer, he’s published poetry, short-fiction, and novels.
• His first novel, The 52nd Poem, explores the remnants of a love affair as a man sends a poem a week to his lover over the period of a year. The book went on to win a few awards including the 2003 Alberta Novel of the Year and the City of Edmonton Book Prize.
• A second novel, Doubting Yourself to the Bone, is set in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and has received high praise from critics – including being named as one of the top 100 must read books for 2006 by the Globe & Mail.
• In 2009, Thomas’ third novel, Waiting for Columbus, burst onto the international stage, with a Canadian (McClelland & Stewart) and US (Knopf-Doubleday) release. In 2010, the book was released in the UK • As a writer, he’s published poetry, short-fiction, and novels.
• His first novel, The 52nd Poem, explores the remnants of a love affair as a man sends a poem a week to his lover over the period of a year. The book went on to win a few awards including the 2003 Alberta Novel of the Year and the City of Edmonton Book Prize.
• A second novel, Doubting Yourself to the Bone, is set in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and has received high praise from critics – including being named as one of the top 100 must read books for 2006 by the Globe & Mail.
• In 2009, Thomas’ third novel, Waiting for Columbus, burst onto the international stage, with a Canadian (McClelland & Stewart) and US (Knopf-Doubleday) release. In 2010, the book was released in the UK (Picador), and was published in Serbia, Brazil, Poland, China, and Quebec. The book was also released as an audio book. Waiting for Columbus won the City of Edmonton Book Prize, was a nominee for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club (UK) pick for fall 2010 and was picked as one of Richard and Judy’s 100 Books of the decade.
• Waiting for Columbus has been optioned for film. Rumours are swirling right now about the possibility of Nicholas Cage playing “Columbus” in the movie.
• This is All a Lie, his fourth (published) novel, gathered stellar reviews across Canada, including a starred review in Quill & Quire, and being named as a top 100 book of 2017 in the National Post.
• Trofimuk is a founding father of Edmonton’s Raving Poets movement, which was an open-stage poetry event held in a bar, with the poets backed up by the Raving Poets Band. He played piano (badly but with gusto) in the Raving Poets band.
• He is a frequent teacher at YouthWrite (http://www.youthwrite.com/), a camp for kids who love to write, and he sits on the board of the YouthWrite Society Canada.
• He also irregularly blogs on his website: “Writer, Gardener, Failed Buddhist.” (www.thomastrofimuk.com)
• Trofimuk has recently taken up kayaking. He loves maps, and charts. He really likes new sheets. He’s a huge fan of single malt whisky. He has been known to smoke cigars. If you offer him wine, he’ll very likely accept.
• He was a “dance dad,” which means he knows more about dance than he ever thought he’d know, and he did a lot of driving back and forth from Shelly’s Dance Studio. He has grown to love dance, and in fact, there’s a dancer in the latest novel, called The Elephant on Karlův Bridge.
• The Elephant on Karlův Bridge, set in Prague, Czech Republic, in which a five-ton African elephant is one of the main characters, is slated for an August 15, 2022 release.

Here's a short and sweet version:

Thomas Trofimuk is a writer of poetry and fiction. He’s published in literary magazines across the country, and on CBC radio. His first novel, The 52nd Poem won the George Bugnet Novel of the Year Award and the City of Edmonton Book Prize at the 2003 Alberta Book Awards. His second novel, the critically acclaimed Doubting Yourself to the Bone, was named as one of the Globe and Mail’s top 100 must-read books for 2006. His third book, Waiting for Columbus, was released in August 2009 in the US, Canada, the UK, Serbia, Poland, Brazil, China and Quebec. Waiting for Columbus won the City of Edmonton Book Prize, was a nominee for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick for fall 2010 and was picked as one of Richard and Judy’s 100 Books of the decade. A fourth novel, This is All a Lie was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. The Elephant on Karlův Bridge is set to be released Aug, 2022. Thomas writes on a regular basis for his own website; “writer, gardener, failed Buddhist” at www.thomastrofimuk.com. He lives (and writes) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
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Thomas Trofimuk’s books

Average rating: 3.51 · 1,693 ratings · 318 reviews · 12 distinct works • Similar authors

	Waiting for Columbus 3.38 avg rating — 1,364 ratings — published 2009 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Elephant on Karlův Bridge 4.08 avg rating — 153 ratings — published 2022 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Is All A Lie really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 50 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Doubting Yourself to the Bone 3.97 avg rating — 38 ratings — published 2005 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The 52nd Poem 4.12 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 2002	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Saudade 4.50 avg rating — 12 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Saudade 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Waiting For Columbus it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	L'oiseau rare it was ok 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	WAITING FOR COLUMBUS 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Thomas Trofimuk's Blog

Mid-January, cold and grey and mean

Hello from frozen Alberta. We’ve had temperatures over the past week that dipped into the -42C range, with wind-chills of -58C and -60C. It’s the kind of cold that freezes the inside of your nose instantly. It’s a bite that feels mean. It’s the kind of cold that makes -18C feel like a heatwave.

I’m in my office today, with hot coffee and the new book open on the screen, and it’s snowing. We won’t

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Thomas’s Recent Updates

Thomas Trofimuk answered Goodreads's question: What are you currently working on? I'm working on a SF novel about a woman that travels to a distant galaxy and spends 11 years on the planet Nyx, with Nyxians, while back home on Earth, only four days have passed. It's more about her arrival home and how she adjusts. So much fun!! See Full Answer
Sep 14, 2026 04:08PM · like
Thomas Trofimuk answered Goodreads's question: How do you deal with writer’s block? I've never been blocked. I've been inside periods of time when I recognize that I need to read, rather than write, but even in these periods I write pretty much every day.
Sep 14, 2026 04:04PM · like

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Books on the Nigh...: What are you currently reading? June 2011	133	153	Jul 07, 2011 04:01PM
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2011: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2866	793	Feb 29, 2012 09:03PM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2015: Questions/Problems in Completed Tasks	509	295	Aug 31, 2015 09:02PM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2015: Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE POSTS)	3424	696	Sep 01, 2015 07:40PM
Retro Chapter Chi...: Winter 2018: The "Waiting" Challenge	72	29	Mar 21, 2019 09:54AM
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Thomas’s Quotes

“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., A Man Without a Country

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