Fimo Mitchell: Coolopolis' Man of the Year for this week

Coolopolis’s man of the year this week is Fimo Mitchell, the black Mordecai Richler. Ok, don’t call him that. Ok, do. The 33-year-old has returned home to Montreal from living in China to push his newest novel, Kingston’s Return, a 150-page tale which he started scribbling in 2007.
   The story: Kingston Yearwood returns to town after doing a documentary on hip-hop in China and experiences a lot of difficulty getting back into the groove here. It’s an excellent topic, as those who have travelled often experience a hard-to-define readjustment period upon there return. There really should be a word for it.
   Mitchell completed a Communications and then a Journalism degree but didn’t enjoy working in that world after a stint at CTV Montreal and then as an assignment editor at Global TV as well as a supply teacher at the Lester B. Pearson school Board.
   After first teaching in China in 2002, he left for good in 2007 because working life in Montreal was too time-consuming.
   “You work all these hours and you’re tired and really drained at the end of the day. When I’m in China I don’t feel that way. I work part-time hours, about 20 hours a week so I have a lot more time to write,” he says. “That’s energizing, a blessing, that’s the main reason I’m out there. It used to be because of my curiosity about China but now in recent years I keep going back, cuz where else can I earn a living and do what I’m really passionate about. I haven’t found that sort of gig in Montreal or North America, I’d take it at this point.”
   In his first Chinese job, which paid $500 a month, he immersed himself in small town life speaking almost exclusively in Mandarin. He was living in surroundings where he barely saw a white face, not to mention a black face, for months.
  “I was alone in that small hell of a town tucked away behind these paper mills and there was no one to speak to and one day I’ve had this idea for a story,” he says. “I’ve always loved writing articles and so forth but I never thought I’d write a book but when began as a few paragraphs turned into chapters and flowed into a book.”
   Mitchell also penned the highly-acclaimed Lost or Found.
  Check out one of the cool innovations from his recent book launch in the video below.