T. F. Rigelhof
Terrence Frederick "Terry" Rigelhof is a Canadian writer and academic. 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; the book was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 1996 Governor General's Awards, and won the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction at the Quebec Writers' Federation Awards.
Originally from Regina, Saskatchewan, Rigelhof joined the seminary in the 1960s. He left those studies after a crisis of faith which left him suicidal, but retained an academic interest in the history and sociology of religion, becoming a longtime instructor at Montreal's Dawson College. He published the novel The Education of J.J. Pass and the short story collection Je t'aime, Cowboy 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. 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 and Hooked on Canadian Books: The Good, the Better, and the Best Canadian Novels Since 1984 ; the George Grant biography George Grant: Redefining Canada ; and a second memoir, Nothing Sacred: A Journey Beyond Belief.