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Tyler Hellard and his debut novel, Searching for Terry Punchout, are featured on the longlist for this year’s Canada Reads contest.
There’s a common theme among all the books featured on the longlist — building bridges.
Hellard’s novel, Searching for Terry Punchout, is about a hockey player — but it’s more than just a hockey story, he said.
“Really it’s a story about a father and a son who haven’t been close, who have spent a lot of years not speaking to each other,” he told Island Morning host Mitch Cormier.
“The main character, Adam, he’s coming home…. He starts to reconnect with his friends and his family and the sort of broader community, so I think in that sense it fits the theme really well — those sort of personal bridges between family and friends and community in general.”
Island Morning8:46P.E.I.-raised writer on Canada Reads longlist
Tyler Hellard grew up in Summerside, and his first novel, Searching for Terry Punchout, was just announced as part of the longlist for Canada Reads 2026. We speak to Tyler from his home in Calgary.
Searching for Terry Punchout was first published in 2018, and was a finalist for the 2019 Amazon Canada First Novel Award and the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.
‘All of us played in Summerside’
Hellard said his upbringing in Summerside was an influence for writing his novel through a hockey lens.
“It’s an easy framework for people to read if you grew up like I did. You know, small town hockey — all of us played in Summerside,” he said, adding that it was a unifying thing.
“You can understand those relationships, you know — rivalry, competition, the way people feel when they’re playing competitive sports.”
Searching for Terry Punchout was first published in 2018, and was a finalist for the 2019 Amazon Canada First Novel Award and the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. (Invisible Publishing)
Hellard said he still loves sports, but his relationship with them has changed as he’s aged.
“I’m really excited for this year because we have Olympics and we have World Baseball Classic and we have World Cup,” he said.
“There’s a lot of flaws in those organizations, but the games themselves are still a lot of fun to me to watch, and I like getting involved with people.”
What’s next?
Being longlisted for the contest this year has given his book a second life, Hellard said, adding that it feels like a good time to get back to writing after a six-year break.
He said he intends to return to his idea of writing a non-fiction book about wrestling.
“Everything has lined up really well,” he said. “I’m also working on a new novel, and my ambitious goal is to finish both by the end of the year.”
In the meantime, Hellard said he’s happy to be featured this year.
“I really like Canada reads. The competition format I find really entertaining, and I love that it’s not so much a celebration of the book that wins, but of just reading in general,” he said.
“If I’m only here for the longlist for two weeks, I’m going to try to enjoy it.”