Books

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Dewey, Divas and the Dudes Winter 2019

CBC Spring 2019 Non-Fiction List #3

Booklist

Ingram June 2019 Pride Catalogue (USA)

Globe and Mail review, Elizabeth Renzetti, June 15, 2019

After The Podcast Ends, Heather Down, July 2015

“Coming out, Coming in, Coming home”

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Adam Prashaw’s life was full of surprises, from the moment he was born. Assigned female at birth, and with parents who had been expecting a boy, he spent years living as “Rebecca Danielle Adam Prashaw”, before coming to terms with being a transgender man. Adam captured hearts with his humour, compassion and intensity. After a tragic accident cut his life short, he left a legacy of changed lives and a trove of social media posts documenting his life, relationships, transition and struggles with epilepsy, all with remarkable transparency and directness.

In Soar, Adam, Soar, his father, a former priest, retells Adam’s story alongside his son’s own words. From early childhood through first coming out as a lesbian and then as a man, and his battles with epilepsy and refusal to give in, it chronicles Adam’s desire to define himself, his joyful spirit and his love of life which continues to conquer all. 

Honouring a decision Adam made at 16, four of his organs are donated to save other lives. In a remarkable twist, the brave young man’s great heart was given to another man and another great heart, John Dickhout, who made himself known to Adam’s family and became one of many of the living proofs of Adam’s continued presence as a teacher, a guide, and an inspiration.

ISBN 9781459742765

Commended:

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Soar, Adam, Soar

ENDORSEMENTS & REVIEWS

"After finishing Soar, Adam, Soar, I reflected, integrating and processing this beautiful story of resiliency into my own psyche. I asked myself if this was a book about trans gender, or a story about epilepsy, or a campaign in favour of becoming an organ donor. Although those are all parts of this book, they truly are NOT what this book is about. This book is a love story. Plain and simple. A love story that, I believe, everybody needs to read, especially if you are parent.

"Soar, Adam, Soar also has funny moments, light moments, beautiful moments and I-can’t-believe-that-really-happened moments. It is loving, uplifting, a piece of humanity that transcends things of this earth.”

Heather Down

After The Book Rnds Podcast

Your story...Adam's story is incredibly rich and very moving. From the first page, I felt I knew your voice, like that of an old friend. Through your personal experience, you help us see what it means to be a father, a son, a priest, an actor, a MAN.  It is powerful material through which we examine love, family, gender, sexuality, illness, and spirituality...LIFE (with a heavy dose of cosmic irony...thank you for that.) Like any great piece of drama, this story deserves to be heard by a huge audience."

Ernest Zulia

Director, Playwright,  Creator, adaptation of Robert Fulgham's "All  I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten"

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I had the honour of performing the first legalized same sex marriage in Canada and passing more LGBTQ legislation in Canada's history including the first Trans Human Rights in any Province. 50 years of Queer activism seems worthwhile because of this book. Adam's story is why.Adam is the reason. Adam's loving and accepting family is the point. This book is an answered prayer. 

Rick Prashaw, Adam's father, celebrates life in this moving memoir – joined, in a sense, by Adam himself, whose musings and social-media posts enrich the narrative. The result is both specific and universal.

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Booklist, Michael Cart, American Libraries Association

A remarkable story by a remarkable father.

Tomson Highway

(American Libraries Assn)

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A deeply moving book, of truths, of life and death, told by a father about his child, born Rebecca, becomes Adam, dies accidentally, his organs donated to live on. A tale of courage and generosity that, in all its sadness, makes you hopeful of our future.

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Mel Watkins

Author, Political Activist

Rev. Cheri DiNovo

MPP Ontario 2006-2018

You offer such incredible insight and contagious gratitude as does Adam through you.

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Kat Powderly

President

Responsible Communications

Soar, Adam, Soar is a gorgeous autobiography. Rick Prashaw's unique approach to co-authoring with his late son and his threading together of social media posts into a cohesive narrative is so fresh and exciting.  The themes of non-conforming gender identity, the varied pressure of academia, and the lonely-yet-public stage of social media offers instructors multiple opportunities to bring theory to life.  More broadly, the challenges of young adulthood will resonate with many post-secondary readers."

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Jennifer Ball

Professor, Sociology

Humber College

Soar, Adam, Soar is a moving, powerful, valuable book because of its story, but more importantly because of the intensity of the first-person account of Adam’s life and legacy provided by the author, Adam’s father, Rick Prashaw. Rick pulls no punches: this is not a romanticized, sanitized account of a difficult and challenging life and death, nor of a difficult and challenging parent-child relationship. He faces his own story, which includes the unfinished tale of his own life and the grief that now pervades it, as bravely as his son faced his. Though I read much of the book through tears, I came away moved by the joy with which Adam lived and that his spirit continues to inspire. In a remarkable twist, the brave young man’s great heart was given to another man and another great heart, John Dickhout, who made himself known to Adam’s family and became one of many of the living proofs of Adam’s continued presence as a teacher, a guide, and an inspiration. The overwhelming message of Soar, Adam, Soar is that Adam’s love of life conquered and continues to conquer all.

Dr. Colleen Humbert

Editor and Academic

Digby, Nova Scotia

 The Author

Photo: Stacey Croucher

Rick Prashaw is a tested writer and public speaker whose eclectic career has thrived in jobs in journalism, the priesthood, national non-government organization (NGO) leadership, and federal politics. 

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He has worked for The Vancouver Sun, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, the national ecumenical Church Council on Justice and Corrections, and, most recently, for three federal New Democratic Party Members of Parliament.

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At the Church Council NGO, advocates for a healing justice after crime, Prashaw served as executive director and co-authored two books. He is the co-winner of the 1999 national Ron Wiebe Restorative Justice Award, awarded to an individual who models restorative justice principles in the service of justice and peace.

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Prashaw ran for the NDP in the 2004 federal election in the Ottawa riding of Carleton Mississippi Mills. His three legislative assistant jobs for Members of Parliament include championing campaigns for legislation on poverty elimination (Sault Ste. Marie MP Tony Martin, 2004-2008) and a national dementia strategy (Nickel Belt MP Claude Gravelle, 2011-2015).

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Prashaw received a Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) at Carleton University in Ottawa and a Masters of Divinity at the University of Western Ontario. He also studied at San Anselmo College in Rome.

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Prashaw is proudest of being Adam’s dad. It has nurtured new advocacy work for transgender rights and organ donation.

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Prashaw lives in Ottawa.