Winnipeg creative writer Wayne Tefs dies

Winnipeg fiction writer Wayne Tefs has died.

Tefs, a longtime fiction editor at Turnstone Press and author of Bandits: A Portrait of Ken Leishman, passed away Monday after a lengthy illness. 

Jamis Paulson, associate publisher at Turnstone Press, said he believes Tefs was one of the "founding fathers of Canadian literature."

Tefs had an influence on the early careers of some of Canada's well known authors in his capacity as a fiction editor, Paulson said.

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He had an interest in history and psychology, along with a deep fascination with understanding the human condition.

Tefs picked up cycling after he was diagnosed with Carcinoid Syndrome in 1994, said Paulson. He travelled the world cycling, said Paulson.