Joseph Boyden's first two novels were nominated for nearly every literary award in Canada. The Rogers Writers Trust Prize, the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year, the Canadian Authors Association Book of the Year, the Libris Book of the Year, and the Amazon/Canada First Novel Award were all given to Three Day Road in 2005. The Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Libris Novel of the Year, and the Libris Author of the Year were all awarded to Through Black Spruce (2008). Boyden received the Diamond Jubilee Medal from Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 for his services to Canadian art and culture. The Orenda was the best-selling book in the country the following year. He splits his time between Northern Ontario and New Orleans, Louisiana, as a professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the Institute of American Indigenous Arts in Sante Fe, New Mexico.