Audrey Thomas

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Audrey Grace Thomas , OC , (born November 17, 1935 in Binghamton , New York as Audrey Grace Callahan ) is a Canadian writer of American descent who received the Marian Engel Award in 1987 for her complete works and the sole author three times the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize could win.

Life

Born Audrey Grace Callaham in Binghamton, New York, she emigrated to Canada in 1959 , where she first studied and later taught at the University of British Columbia . During her studies she was friends with Danuta Gleed , Frances Itani , Bryan Moon and Rita Donovan . From 1964 to 1966 she lived in Ghana . The experiences and experiences there left a great impression on her literary work, for which she was awarded the Marian Engel Award in 1987.

Her first published short story, If One Green Bottle ... , appeared in Atlantic Monthly in 1965 and was awarded the Atlantic First Award , resulting in the publication of her first short story collection, Ten Green Bottles (1967). The story takes up the motif of the miscarriage , a recurring theme in her oeuvre, which is often about the loss of children. Other predominant themes revolve around the artist's position in reality and his illusions. Many of her works have an autobiographical reference. Even if the actual story in Songs My Mother Taught Me (1973) is fictionally independent, there are parallels between the protagonist and Thomas: the grandfather's memory, spending the summer months in his house by the lake, and finally working in a mental hospital. Mrs. Blood (1970) and Blown Figures (1974) continue the story of Isobel Cleary, both stories take place in Africa and also take up the motif of guilt and miscarriage. The style of both novels was quite innovative in that he switched between two levels of observation or narrative voices and used set pieces from newspaper articles, dictionary definitions and hospital poems.

She was the only author to receive the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize three times, for Intertidal Life (1984), Wild Blue Yonder (1990) and Coming Down from Wa (1995). In 2008 she was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada .

Some of her works are historical novels and have so far been translated into Dutch, French and Italian - but not into German.

Audrey Thomas lives on Galiano Island , British Columbia .

plant

Novels
  • Mrs. Blood - 1970
  • Munchmeyer and Prospero on the Island - 1971
  • Songs My Mother Taught Me - 1973
  • Blown Figures - 1974
  • Latakia - 1979
  • Intertidal Life - 1984 (nominated for the Governor General's Award for Fiction )
  • Graven Images - 1993
  • Coming Down from Wa - 1995 (nominated for the Governor General's Award for Fiction)
  • Isobel Gunn - 1999
  • Tattycoram - 2005.
Short stories
  • Ten Green Bottles - 1967
  • ladies and escorts - 1977
  • Real Mothers - 1981
  • Two in the Bush and Other Stories - 1981
  • Goodbye Harold, Good Luck - 1986
  • The Wild Blue Yonder - 1990
  • The Path of Totality - 2001.

Awards

  • 1965 - Atlantic First Award for If One Green Bottle ...
  • 1979 - National Magazine Award, "Silver", for Harry and Violet by the Zs. "Saturday Night"
  • 1981 - National Magazine Award, "Silver", for Real Mothers by Zs. Châtelaine
  • 1985 - Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for Intertidal Life
  • 1985–1986 - Canada-Scotland Literary Fellowship
  • 1987 - Marian Engel Award
  • 1989 - Canada-Australia Prize
  • 1991 - Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for Wild Blue Yonder
  • 1996 - Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for Coming Down From Wa
  • 2001 - WO Mitchell Award
  • 2003 - Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 2003 - George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding Literary Career
  • 2003 - Matt Cohen Prize

literature

  • Caroline Rosenthal : Narrative Deconstructions of Gender in Works by Audrey Thomas, Daphne Marlatt, and Louise Erdrich. Camden House, Rochester 2003.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eugene Benson and William Toye (eds.): The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1997. p. 1113.
  2. ↑ Governor General Announces New Appointments to the Order of Canada ( Memento from June 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Stephen Smith: Review of Isobel Gunn by Audrey Thomas. In: Quill & Quire . November 1999. Retrieved July 9, 2012: “ It's a harsh, stirring story. A lesser writer might have given in and softened it, allowed Isobel some comfort, maybe even redemption, but Thomas doesn't, and that gives the novel the deep, satisfying ring of fictional truth. There are real virtues in the way Thomas tells the story, too. In her canny ear for dialogue, for instance, and the way historical detail never feels like research; in her deft depictions of stricken landscapes, Scottish and Canadian both. What's perplexing about Isobel Gunn - and this, perhaps, is what keeps it from being a truly great novel - is Thomas's choice of narrator. ”
  4. ↑ Bronwyn Drainie: Review of Tattycoram by Audrey Thomas. In: Quill & Quire. June 2005. Retrieved July 8, 2012: “ Thomas has written a very clever little novel. On one level, it is highly readable and apes the conventions of popular Victorian fiction in a satisfying way. On another more postmodern level, the novel allows the reader to chew over all those fascinating questions about fact and fiction, the integrity of private stories, and the sinister power of writers. ”
  5. ↑ James Grainger: Review of the Path of Totality by Audrey Thomas. In: Quill & Quire. September 2001. Retrieved July 9, 2012: “ (…) Thomas's stories often read like interesting excerpts from a missing novel. They are interesting as fragments, but lack a defining symbol, series of insights, or plot arc to harden them into a complete or closed vision. ”
  6. ↑ Price ( Memento from September 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Audrey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomas, Audrey Grace; Thomas, Audrey Callahan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian writer and university professor of American descent
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Binghamton