Ray Wiseman, 75, of Fergus, will receive the 21st annual Leslie K. Tarr Award for outstanding career achievement.
The award was presented on Wednesday at The Word Guild awards gala in Mississauga.
Tarr was a Toronto journalist, editor, and teacher. The award celebrates a career contribution to Christian writing and publishing in Canada. Previous recipients include author Rudy Wiebe and poet Margaret Avison, both two-time Governor General’s Literary award winners, and Janette Oke, whose inspirational novels have sold over 28 million copies.
Wiseman, who writes a weekly column for The Wellington Advertiser, has written a novel, seven non-fiction books, ten technical manuals and hundreds of Newspaper columns. Along with Anna, his wife of 53 years, he runs a manuscript-critiquing business.
Wiseman finds “tremendous satisfaction in being able to help writers improve their work and get published.”
Several of the books he has critiqued have won awards, including Alan Reynolds’ work on Christian apologetics, A Troubled Faith.
Wiseman said Anna, who reads everything he writes before it goes to print, is integral to his success. “We complement each other. I’m the one with the creative talent. She’s the one with good administrative, organizational and proofreading skills.”
Don Ranney, a former orthopaedic surgeon and missionary who co-authored When Cobras Laugh with Wiseman, said, “He critiqued everything I wrote, but did it in a gentle way.” He said his medical writing has also improved, thanks to Wiseman’s tutelage.
Wiseman was forced to leave school in grade 9 to help support his family. But he continued his education as a mature student, and first became an electronics technician and later discovered his writing skills while at Briercrest Bible College in Saskatchewan.
In 1982 Rogers Engineering asked him to take charge of its technical writing and publications, and he then edited a magazine and wrote several biographies of world Christian leaders. He has earned two bachelor degrees, has visited more than 30 countries, has served as a missionary overseas and a pastor in Canada.
