Paul Nicholas Mason (born 1958) is a Canadian novelist, playwright, and occasional journalist.
Born in London, England, he was raised in Rhodesia, British Columbia and Ontario. He is a graduate of Trent University in Peterborough and Queen's University in Kingston.
Mason has published two plays, The Discipline Committee and Circles of Grace (1995), which have been produced in Canada, Ireland and the United States. His play Sister Camille's Kaleidoscopic Cabaret won the Christians in Theatre Arts Full Length Play award in 1996, and premiered in Michigan in 1998.
Mason's first novel, Battered Soles, was published by Turnstone Press in 2005. The novel celebrates a fictional pilgrimage from Peterborough, Ontario, to the small village of Lakefield, where there is, Mason asserts, a statue of a blue-skinned Jesus with healing powers in the basement of St. John's Anglican Church. In July 2005 the rector of St. John's posted a notice advising confused tourists that there was no such statue in the basement of the church, but that "anyone wishing an encounter with the living Christ" should join the congregation at Sunday services. Battered Soles was nominated for the Stephen Leacock award for Humor.
Mason's second novel, The Red Dress, was published by Turnstone in 2008. The story of a seventeen-year old young man growing up poor and confused in rural Ontario, it is significantly darker than Battered Soles, but the ending is cautiously hopeful. The Red Dress is set in a village called Greenfield, but the landmarks and features of the community suggest that Mason has blended Lakefield, Ontario with Barriefield, just outside the city of Kingston. The Red Dress was long-listed for the 2009 ReLit award.
Mason's work is characterized by what one reviewer calls its "fragile optimism" (CNT). His plays and novels are informed by Christian belief, but sometimes bawdy or even profane.
Mason has taught English and Drama at Lakefield College School since 1983.
Review of Battered Soles in the literary blog, Pickle Me This: http://picklemethis.blogspot.com/2009/04/battered-soles-by-paul-nicholas-mason.html Review of Battered Soles in Prairie Fire: http://www.prairiefire.ca/reviews/mason_battered_soles.html Review of Battered Soles in Nimble Spirit: http://www.nimblespirit.com/html/battered_soles_review.html Review of Battered Soles in the now defunct Catholic New Times: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_/ai_n15396378