Got an email this morning from our good friend Jason Dunkerley, whose name has come up here a time or two through the years and who is almost certainly involved in a few of the stories where names are missing.
For several years he’s been working on and off at writing a book about his life, and at long last it’s finally done and getting itself published!
If you know anything about Jason, you know that he’s been a lot of places and done a lot of things, and also that he’s extremely modest about most of it. So even if you’re like us and get to count him amongst your good friends, you’re probably going to learn some things. And if you’ve heard the name but don’t know much about the person behind it or even if you have no idea who this is, what any of it is about or even how you got here in the first place, I can tell you from having known him for more than 25 years that there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy hearing his story.
Yorkland Publishing today announced the upcoming publication of Jason Dunkerley’s Visions of Hope: Running Towards My Own Truth, an autobiography of an iconic blind Canadian middle-distance runner who won five Paralympic medals and numerous other laurels during his storied career.In telling his story, Dunkerley introduces the reader to the behind-the-scenes intricacies of top-tier athletics: the rigours of intensive training; the building of rapport among athlete, guide and coach; the development and implementation of winning strategies; the never-ending struggle to excel; the searing letdown of defeat, and the euphoric triumph of victory. Bruce Kidd, a fabled Canadian Olympian and Professor Emeritus of Sport Politics and Policy at the University of Toronto, called Visions of Hope “an insightful, at times poetic, account of the life of a Canadian Paralympian.”Visions of Hope will soon be available from bookstores everywhere, but prepublication orders can be placed immediately at Yorkland Publishing’s website (www.yorklandpublishing.com).Yorkland Publishing plans to release Visions of Hope in a large-type edition and as an eBook by mid-November and is partnering with the CNIB to produce an audiobook.
According to Jason, who I believe because it’s his book and he should know, Bruce Kidd also wrote the foreword.
One last thing. The publisher has started a GoFundMe to help cover promotional costs. There are always a lot of those, and they can be particularly difficult for smaller projects like these to handle. If you’re interested in helping out with that end of things, you can get more information here.
Good luck and congratulations, J!