Keith Maillard

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Keith Maillard

Keith Maillard (born February 28, 1942 in Wheeling , West Virginia ) is a Canadian writer and poet born in the United States , who won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 1990 for his novel Motet .

Life

Keith Maillard was born in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1942 and lived in various locations in the United States and Canada as a young man . First he attended a military high school and wandered between the Florida Keys , New England , New York , Los Angeles , Alaska , Alberta and Nova Scotia . During this phase he worked in various odd jobs, such as a sign or facade painter, bus driver, salesman, folk singer, ghostwriter or poultry plucker. He attended West Virginia University , the campus radio (participated in the radio program The Underground News for Boston University Radio ) of Boston University and wrote for The Free Press . He was one of those Antikriegsprotestler, which according to State Massacre Kent on July 4, 1970, when the National Guard of the United States of the State of Ohio during a demonstration against the Vietnam War four protesters at Kent State University shot dead and nine seriously injured, one felt real burnout . He moved to Canada in 1970, helped by a friend at the University of British Columbia, and received Canadian citizenship in 1976.

Keith Maillard freelanced for CBC / Radio-Canada in the early 1970s , posting his articles on This Country in the Morning , Five Nights and Our Native Land . He was an active member of the Writers 'Union of Canada , served on the National Council for two years, and was a co-founder of the local British Columbia Writers' Union ( Federation of BC Writers ). Maillard also studied music at Vancouver Community College, played the Irish flute, and taught fundamentals of music at the Vancouver School Board and Vancouver Community College. He also plays bass guitar in the Vancouver singer-songwriter's first band, Ferron.

Maillard's first novel, Two Strand River , was published in 1976. Most reviewers struggled with what they thought was a strange book, its cross-gender protagonists, and its crazy events, but Two Strand River soon acquired a certain cult status and the label of being a modern classic of Canadian magical realism , so that it has been reissued twice.

The second novel that Keith Maillard was able to publish was actually the first he had ever written, but initially the book had been rejected by 26 publishers. After being thoroughly revised eight times, it appeared in 1980 as Alex Driving South . In this absent-minded, naturalistic city tale, Maillard first introduced his central fictional setting, Raysburg, West Virginia , where most of his novels are set. The Knife in My Hands followed in 1981 and the follow-up novel Cutting Through in 1982. When he was halfway through his fifth novel, Maillard got problems with writer's block .

From 1985 to 1988, Maillard shelved his writing skills to design courses for The Open Learning Institute for universities and adult education. His fifth novel, Motet , was published in 1989 and won in 1990 to the BC Book Prizes belonging Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize .

After teaching seasonally as a lecturer at both the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University , he was offered a permanent position in 1989 at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Creative Writing , where he studied all genres except the drama taught. Maillard worked for ten years as a consulting editor for PRISM international . He is currently a full professor and deputy director of the department, specializing in fiction and poetry.

During his time at the University of British Columbia, Maillard began with what he himself regards as his main work: the so-called "Rayburg Series". Described by Georgia Straight as a "little masterpiece," Light in the Company of Woman was released in 1993 and was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize . This novel was followed in 1995 by Hazard Zones , which was named Toronto Star for Best Canadian Novels of the Year and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize . The writer also returned to his first great love of poetry and published Dementia American , which won the 1994 Gerald Lampert Award for the best volume of poetry. The Clarinet Polka was on the shortlist of Canadian booksellers in 2003, the film rights to it were acquired by filmmaker Liz Friedlander.

In 2004 Keith Maillard returned to the raw material that he had initially published in The Knife in My Hands and Cutting Trough , rewrote the material and created Difficulty at the Beginning Quartet , which appeared in four volumes between September 2005 and 2006. The Toronto -based The Globe and Mail selected Difficulty at the Beginning Quartet as one of the best books of 2006 and called it "a work of terrible beauty and grace, a masterpiece fit to contend with the best novels of the last century."

In 2011 Maillard published two excerpts from his as yet unpublished memoir, Fatherless, in Numéro Cinq : Kilroy, a Writer's Childhood and Richland .

Keith Maillard currently lives in western Vancouver .

plant

Prose and poetry
Anthologies
  • 1985: Vancouver Fiction . David Watmough, ed., Winlaw, BC, (Polestar Press) ISBN 978-0919591059
  • 1986: Magic Realism and Canadian Literature: Essays and Stories, Proceedings of the Conference on Magic Realist Writing in Canada . University of Waterloo / Wilfrid Laurier University, May 1985; Peter and Ed Jewinski, eds. (University of Waterloo Press) ISBN 978-0888980656
  • 1999: New Expansive Poetry . RS Gwynn, ed., Ashland, Oregon, (Story Line Press) ISBN 978-1885266699
  • 2005: Wild Sweet Notes II: More Great Poetry From West Virginia . (Publishers Place) ISBN 978-0974478524
  • 2008: The Best of Canadian Poetry in English, 2008 . Stephanie Bolster and Molly Peacock, eds., (Tightrope Books) ISBN 978-0978335175
  • 2008: Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam War . Allan Briesmaster and Steven Michael Berzensky, eds., (Seraphim Editions) ISBN 978-0980887914

Awards and nominations

reception

"Despite having left his home state for Canada nearly a quarter of a century ago, Keith Maillard remains one of the major chroniclers of life in the Mountain State. His Raysburg series spans nearly a century, each book taking on the style and character of its time period. Commenting on Difficulty at the Beginning, Natalee Caple remarked "Keith Maillard has constructed a credible world in Raysburg, through which the reader gleans new insights into the politics, pretences, and possibilities of both the recent past and the disturbing present". "-" Even if he left his home state for Canada almost a quarter of a century, Keith Maillard remains one of West Virginia's main chroniclers. His Raysburg series spanned almost a century, each book adopting the style and character of its time period. Commenting on Difficulty at the Beginning , Natalle Caple noted: "Keith Maillard has created a believable world of Raysburg, through which his reading provides new insights into the politics and possibilities of the past two centuries."

literature

  • Tom Sandborn: The Unbearable Lightness of Being American. In: The Globe and Mail . June 10, 2006, D12.
  • Allan Weiss: Strong Voices . In: Canadian Literature. Fall 2004, pp. 153–154.
  • Meredith Sue Willis: Keith Maillard: Five Novels of Raysburg, West Virginia . In: Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review . Spring / Autumn 2004. 31 / 3-4, pp. 358–366.
  • Lorraine M. York: Photographic Mixtures . In: Canadian Literature . Summer 1994. 114, p. 115ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BC Book World: Keith Maillard Biography work and individual reviews. On: ABCbookworld.com. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.writersfest.bc.ca
  3. ^ The Globe and Mail . November 25, 2006.
  4. ↑ Jesse Browner: Little Gloria, Free At Last . In: New York Times Book Review . October 8, 2000. p. 22.
  5. ↑ Etelka Lehoczky: The Clarinet Polka (book review) . In: New York Times Book Review . 152, p. 24.
  6. ↑ Michael Cart: Running (book review). In: Booklist. September 15, 2005. p. 32.
  7. ^ Weatherford Award
  8. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wvwc.edu
personal data
SURNAME Maillard, Keith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian writer and university professor of American descent
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Wheeling , West Virginia United States