Thomas King wins Governor general literary award
- EFN Staff | November 19, 2014
Thomas King is a highly acclaimed novelist, short story writer, scriptwriter and photographer of Cherokee and Greek ancestry. He is as funny as he is talented and his hard work has paid off with his most recent work of fiction The Back of the Turtle being named the Governor General’s Literary Award winner of 2014. King has also written, Medicine River; Truth and Bright Water; and One Good Story, That One. His non-fiction book, The Inconvenient Indian, won both the British Columbia National Book Award and the RBC Taylor Prize for creative non-fiction. His novel Green Grass, Running Water (GG finalist, 1993) was named to Quill & Quire’s Best Canadian Fiction of the Century list. Not a bad resume.
“By celebrating the GG literary awards, we want to highlight the work of Canada’s best authors, illustrators and translators. The voices of these artists and thinkers are more necessary than ever in a world in search of meaning and hope,” said Simon Brault, Director and CEO of the Canada Council. “The Canada Council supports Canadian literature so that it can be enjoyed by a growing number of readers across Canada and abroad.”
The jury write up on The Back of the Turtle makes you want to read the book right now. “The Back of the Turtle is a novel that joins Thomas King’s mythopoeic vision to his writerly grasp of an actual, sensual world. Gabriel Quinn’s life in dystopia is peopled by vivid characters and possibly redeemed by persistent hope. This book sounds like tomorrow morning’s news.”
A member of the Order of Canada and the recipient of an award from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Thomas King is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Guelph in Ontario.
Complete list of Winners
Fiction
Thomas King, (Guelph, Ont.) – The Back of the Turtle (HarperCollinsPublishersLtd)
Andrée A. Michaud, (St-Sébastien-de-Frontenac, Que.) – Bondrée (Éditions Québec Amérique)
Poetry
Arleen Paré, (Victoria) – Lake of Two Mountains (Brick Books)
José Acquelin, (Montreal) – Anarchie de la lumière (les éditions du passage)
Drama
Jordan Tannahill, (Toronto) – Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays (Playwrights Canada Press)
Carole Fréchette, (Montreal) – Small Talk (Leméac Éditeur / Actes Sud)
Non-fiction
Michael Harris, (Toronto) – The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection (HarperCollinsPublishersLtd)
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, (Montreal) – Tenir tête (Lux Éditeur)
Children’s Literature — Text
Raziel Reid, (Vancouver) – When Everything Feels like the Movies (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Linda Amyot, (Longueuil, Que.) – Le jardin d'Amsterdam (Leméac Éditeur)
Children’s Literature — Illustration
Jillian Tamaki, (Brooklyn, N.Y.) – This One Summer, text by Mariko Tamaki (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)
Marianne Dubuc, (Montreal) – Le lion et l'oiseau, text by Marianne Dubuc (Les Éditions de la Pastèque)
Translation
Peter Feldstein, (Montreal) – Paul-Émile Borduas: A Critical Biography (McGill-Queen's University Press)
English translation of Paul-Émile Borduas (1905-1960) : biographie critique et analyse de l’œuvre, by François-Marc Gagnon (Éditions Fides)
Daniel Poliquin, (Ottawa) – L'Indien malcommode : un portrait inattendu des Autochtones d'Amérique du Nord (Les Éditions du Boréal)
French translation of The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, by Thomas King (Doubleday Canada)