Summerside-raised Tyler Hellard's debut novel makes 2026 Canada Reads longlist

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." 

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. 

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." 

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." 

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.