T. F. Rigelhof

Terry (T. F.) Rigelhof (born 1944) is a Canadian writer and academic.[1] He is best known for A Blue Boy in a Black Dress, his memoir of his time studying at a Roman Catholic seminary school prior to abandoning the priesthood;[2] the book was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 1996 Governor General's Awards,[3] and won the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction at the Quebec Writers' Federation Awards.[4]

Originally from Regina, Saskatchewan,[1] Rigelhof joined the seminary in the 1960s.[2] He left those studies after a crisis of faith which left him suicidal,[2] but retained an academic interest in the history and sociology of religion, becoming a longtime instructor at Montreal's Dawson College.[5] He published the novel The Education of J.J. Pass (1983) and the short story collection Je t'aime, Cowboy (1993) prior to writing A Blue Boy in a Black Dress; he published one further novel, Badass on a Softail, in 1997 before concentrating on non-fiction writing thereafter.[6] In addition to his books, he was a regular literary critic for The Globe and Mail and other publications.

His later non-fiction works included the Canadian literature studies This Is Our Writing (2000) and Hooked on Canadian Books: The Good, the Better, and the Best Canadian Novels Since 1984 (2010);[6] the George Grant biography George Grant: Redefining Canada (2001);[7] and a second memoir, Nothing Sacred: A Journey Beyond Belief (2004).[1]