W.P. Kinsella has died. He (pictured, via) was 81 years old.
According to The Washington Post, Carolyn Swayze, Kinsella’s literary agent, announced the news of his passing on her website. Kinsella wrote more than two dozen books throughout his career, but he was best known for his 1982 novel, Shoeless Joe. That book was later adapted into the popular 1989 movie, Field of Dreams.
Here’s more from The New York Times: “Shoeless Joe won the Canadian Authors Association Prize, the Alberta Achievement Award, the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship. Mr. Kinsella was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1993. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of British Columbia, and in 2009 he was awarded the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award.” (via The Hollywood Reporter)