André Alexis
| André Alexis | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 15, 1957 Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Occupation | writer |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Genre | novelist |
| Notable works | Childhood, Fifteen Dogs |
André Alexis (born 15 January 1957 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Canadian writer who grew up in Ottawa and currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.[1]
His debut novel, Childhood (1997), won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and was a co-winner of the Trillium Award.[1] His most recent novel, Fifteen Dogs, won the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize[2] and Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize,[3] and was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards.
Biography
Alexis began his artistic career in the theatre, and has held the position of playwright-in-residence at the Canadian Stage Company. His short play Lambton, Kent, first produced and performed in 1995, was released as a book in 1999.[1] His first published work of fiction, Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa (1994), was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize (Canada and Caribbean region).[1]
His first novel Childhood was published in 1998. It won the Books in Canada First Novel Award and was co-winner of the Trillium Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize.[1]
Alexis published Ingrid and the Wolf, his first work of juvenile fiction, in 2005. The book was a shortlisted nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature at the 2006 Governor General's Awards.[4]
Alexis wrote the libretto for James Rolfe's opera Aeneas and Dido, which premiered at Toronto Masque Theatre in 2007.[5]
His novel Asylum was published in 2008, and is set in Ottawa during the government of Brian Mulroney.[6]
In 2014 Alexis published Pastoral, the first in a planned series of five novels on philosophical themes.[7] Fifteen Dogs, the second novel in the series, was published in 2015[8] and won both the Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Award that year.[7] The third novel, The Hidden Keys, is slated for publication in 2016.[7]
Alexis lives and works in Toronto, where he has hosted programming for CBC Radio, reviews books for The Globe and Mail, and is a contributing editor for This Magazine.
Bibliography
- Despair, and Other Stories of Ottawa (1994) ISBN 0-8050-5980-6
- Childhood (1997) ISBN 0-88910-505-7
- Lambton Kent (1999, drama) ISBN 1-896356-27-3
- Night Piece (1999) ISBN 0-7475-4461-1
- Ingrid and the Wolf (2005, children's novel) ISBN 0-88776-691-9
- Asylum (2008) ISBN 978-0-7710-0669-2
- A (2013) ISBN 9781927040799
- Pastoral (2014) ISBN 9781552452868
- Fifteen Dogs (2015) ISBN 9781552453056
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 André Alexis in The Canadian Encyclopedia.
- ↑ "André Alexis wins 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fifteen Dogs". CBC Books, November 10, 2015.
- ↑ "Andre Alexis wins Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for 'Fifteen Dogs'. Vancouver Sun, November 3, 2015.
- ↑ "2006 Governor General's Literary Awards". Toronto Star, November 18, 2006.
- ↑ "New opera explores flip side of classic tale; James Rolfe, Andre Alexis pen a new work where Aeneas gets the last word". Toronto Star, April 25, 2007.
- ↑ "A wonderfully corrupt capital; Andre Alexis novel paints a Mulroney-era portrait of a crazily complex, decadent and exciting Ottawa". Ottawa Citizen, April 27, 2008.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Alexis's Fifteen Dogs wins Scotiabank Giller Prize". The Globe and Mail, November 11, 2015.
- ↑ "Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis: Review". Toronto Star, March 28, 2015.
- 1957 births
- Living people
- Black Canadian writers
- 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
- 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
- Canadian male novelists
- Canadian male short story writers
- Writers from Ottawa
- Writers from Toronto
- Trinidad and Tobago novelists
- Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to Canada
- 20th-century Canadian novelists
- 21st-century Canadian novelists
- Canadian male dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century Canadian short story writers
- 21st-century Canadian short story writers
- Canadian librettists
- Canadian children's writers
