The Next Chapter

Why Ann Vriend ventured into the world of blues music

Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes is on singer-songwriter Ann Vriend's "currently reading" list.
Soul singer Ann Vriend is reading about the grueling journey of an African woman who is captured by slave traders and taken to America. (Jen Squires Photography / HarperCollins)

Ann Vriend is a soul and R&B singer-songwriter from Edmonton. She is currently reading The Book of Negroes, a Canadian classic by the award-winning novelist Lawrence Hill. The Book of Negroes won the 2007 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best book overall and Canada Reads 2009. ​It was adapted into an award-winning mini-series on CBC-Television.