Menu Close

Posted October 2, 2019

The Fighting Season shortlisted for Governor General’s Literary Award

Congratulations to Sean Harris Oliver for his play The Fighting Season being shortlisted for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama.


Sean Harris Oliver’s The Fighting Season is a searing investigation into the Afghan War through the eyes of a Canadian field medic (Kristy), an OR surgeon (Terry), and a recovery room nurse (Karine). When all three medical professionals experience a life-changing event in the operating room of the NATO-controlled Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Airfield, they are sent back to Canada for further evaluation. Through Kristy, Terry and Karine’s interwoven monologues we begin to understand the contribution that Canada’s medical teams made in Afghanistan, as well as the devastating impact that war has on the ones charged with saving lives.

The published text of The Fighting Season includes supplemental materials about the conflict in Afghanistan, as well as a foreword by Dr. John H. Oliver MD, FRCSC — Sean’s father — whose deployment in that country inspired the work.