DAWSON CITY – Lawrence Hill maintained a fairly hectic public schedule during his recent three months as the Berton House writer in residence.

This was his second time at the residence, having spent a month here in the winter of 2012 as a fill-in for a resident who became ill and had to leave.

At that time, Hill was already beginning to think about his current project, The Midnight Men. It’s a novel about the black American soldiers who worked on the building of the Alaska Highway in 1942.

But first, Hill had to finish The Illegal, which went on to win a number of prizes, including the Canada Reads contest in 2016, and has been optioned for a movie.

That one was delayed about a year when Hill won the contract to deliver the 2013 Massey Lectures, which resulted in the book Blood: the Stuff of Life (Anansi Press).

The five-hour lecture series has been described as “a bold meditation on blood as an historical and contemporary marker of identity, belonging, gender, race, class, citizenship, athletic superiority, and nationhood.”  It does cover all those topics.

He was also working on some of the scripts for the mini-series that was made from his award-winning novel, The Book of Negroes.

The Berton House mandate simply requires the occupant to soak up the ambiance of Dawson and the Yukon and do whatever he or she wishes, provided two of those things are readings in both Whitehorse and Dawson.

Hill, who used every opportunity to meet people and add to his bankers’ boxes of research, did more.

He did his first Whitehorse reading on his arrival in the territory. He would eventually do another (about transforming the book to the TV screen) before he left.

In between, there was a reading at the Dawson Community Library (Star, Jan. 31); a meeting with the Dawson writers’ group; and a presentation at the Dawson campus of Yukon College.

There were others at Chief Zzeh Gittlit School and the John Tiyza cultural Centre in Old Crow; a talk at the Yukon School of Visual Arts; a house reading in West Dawson; and two talks during February’s Myth and Medium conference at the Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre; that second talk at the Kwanlin Dün First Nation after he left Dawson.

Hill also offered presentations at the Haines Junction Library and Teslin’s George Johnson Museum.

On the day we met for this chat at the new Red Mammoth Bistro, he had appointments to spend time at the heritage offices of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and the Dawson City Museum.

At the latter, he’d been poring over microfiche copies of the Dawson Daily News from 1942, getting a sense of how the Yukon viewed the world at a time when Dawson was still the capital.

Establishing the residency here was a very “generous and selfless gesture” on Berton’s part, Hill said.

“Most writers feel pressured to get their work done and find the time to squeeze out a book,” he said.

“One of the values of Berton House is … the ability to escape where you’re from and concentrate your time to work on something.

“Three months is not three days or a weekend or even two weeks. Three months is a good amount of time. You can get a lot done in three months.

“Some people have written entire books in three months.”

Hill admits that he’s a slower writer than that. The essays for Blood took him the better part of a year to research and write, first to produce the longer essays for the book, and then shorter versions for the actual lectures.

“So part of the value,” he said, “is just providing the means to escape, to focus yourself creatively. Then, of course, there is the advantage to the writer who comes of getting to know something about Yukon and something about Dawson.”

Then there’s the business of exchange, Hill said.

“It’s not just an arid, solo experience. Many of the writers are the very same as me, and it’s an opportunity to learn about people here, and for them to learn about you.

“I’ve met people and learned about circumstances that I would never have had a chance to do if I hadn’t come here. It’s a fantastic cultural exchange, a great way for people to get to know each other.”

This is Hill’s third trip to Dawson. The first was to Berton House six years ago.

As a result of those three trips, two of which involved Berton House, the author has made a good group of friends here.

“I’ve learned a great deal, and hopefully have given back to the community,” Hill said.

“So I guess the richest part of Berton house, in addition to the gifts it gives to the writer, is the ability for exchange and friendship, for people to get to know each other, and appreciate each other.

“So it’s great on a personal level, and creatively for writers, and a great opportunity for communities to meet and to support each other.”

Much of his necessary research for the novel will have him on the area of the Alaska Highway between Teslin and Burwash Landing.

However, Hill said, Dawson can certainly expect to see him again during those research trips.