Harrison Mooney writes books.
“A stark and startling memoir, Mooney's vital story depicts the violence of transracial adoption in the all-too-frequent cases where white parents simply decline to engage with the realities facing their non-white children." — Booklist
Buy Invisible Boy —
Get a physical copy from Harrison’s favourite Vancouver bookstore, or just let the writer read you the whole thing himself.
Harrison’s debut, Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery, was the winner of the 2023 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Memoir Nonfiction, the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and the Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes.
Harrison is the host of East Vancouver’s Unbound Reading Series and TVO Arts Season 2. He also enjoys hosting book talks, delivering speeches, appearing on podcasts, narrating audiobooks, and offering seminars, classes and workshops on creative writing, among other things.
The Story
“A harrowing account of a childhood spent wrestling with big questions while an adoptive family offers all the wrong answers. I couldn’t get enough of young Harrison Mooney’s determination to understand racism and the casually cruel ideas that animated his reactionary religious upbringing. Invisible Boy cuts deep with just-in-time insights about faith, family, and coming of age in a deeply flawed world.” — Sarah Berman, author of Don’t Call it a Cult
The Storyteller
“Invisible Boy is an extraordinary coming of age story of being Black in a white world, living in the shadow of fundamentalist religion, surviving abuse, and deciphering the deep complexities of transracial adoption, all narrated in a singular and clear voice. Harrison Mooney captures his younger self exquisitely and it is clear he has been writing this book his entire life. Young Harrison has survival skills—he is sharply observant, funny, intelligent, and insightful—but his ultimate talent, shared with the most accomplished memoirists before him, is as a storyteller.” — Emily Urquhart, author of Ordinary Wonder Tales
Presenting Invisible Boy
Harrison launches his 2022 residency at the Vancouver Public Library with the release of his debut memoir, in conversation with Ouano Foundation program director Melanie Green.
Reading Invisible Boy
Listen to Harrison read the first chapter of his award-winning book as part of Story Stream, VPL’s Storytime For Adults.
Harrison Exists! —
Check out Harrison’s blog for updates and insights and long-winded rants about stuff that he likes and dislikes.
LATEST NEWS
Discussing Invisible Boy
In S5E13 of Writing the Coast: BC & Yukon Book Prizes Podcast, host Megan Cole talks to Harrison about his twice-nominated book. In their conversation, Harrison talks about researching his own life, writing about Abbotsford and the Fraser Valley, and his creative hygiene routine.
