:Carrie Mac

Carrie Mac (born February 25, 1975) is a Canadian author of more than a dozen novels for Young Adults, both contemporary and speculative. Her latest work is the literary novel, LAST WINTER, due out from Random House Canada in early 2023. She also writes literary short fiction, and creative non-fiction.

Some of her accolades include a CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize,{{cite web |url=http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/09/2015-cbc-creative-nonfiction-prize-winner-announced.html |website=www.cbc.ca/ |title=Carrie Mac wins the 2015 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize |date=21 September 2015 |publisher=CBC Radio-Canada |accessdate=24 December 2015 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.straight.com/blogra/534821/vancouver-writer-carrie-mac-wins-cbc-creative-nonfiction-prize|title=Vancouver writer Carrie Mac wins CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize|website=Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly|date=21 September 2015|language=en|access-date=2017-08-08}} the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize,{{cite web|url=http://www.bookcentre.ca/awards/sheila_a_egoff_childrens_literature_prize |website=www.bookcentre.ca |title=Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize |publisher=Canadian Children's Book Centre |accessdate=24 December 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223190652/http://www.bookcentre.ca/awards/sheila_a_egoff_childrens_literature_prize |archive-date=23 December 2015 }} and the Arthur Ellis Award,{{cite news |title=Fradkin novel wins crime-writing award |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/fradkin-novel-wins-crime-writing-award/article981945/ |accessdate=24 December 2015 |work=The Globe and Mail |date=11 June 2005}} as well as various other awards and recognitions.{{cite journal|editor1-last=Kumar|editor1-first=Lisa|title=Carrie Mac|journal=Gale Virtual Reference Library|date=2013|volume=249|pages=130–132|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=vanc99032&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CCX2732900057&&docId=GALE|accessdate=10 October 2015|series=Something About the Author|publisher=Gale|location=Detroit}}{{Cite web|url=https://thewordonthestreet.ca/lethbridge/festival/participants/carrie-mac/|title=Carrie Mac|website=thewordonthestreet.ca|access-date=2017-08-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808074952/https://thewordonthestreet.ca/lethbridge/festival/participants/carrie-mac/|archive-date=2017-08-08|url-status=dead}}

Early life, education, and employment

Mac was born in Kamloops, British Columbia. During her childhood and youth, Mac lived in Vancouver, Grand Forks, Abbotsford and on the Sunshine Coast.

Mac's first job, at age seven, was to read the Bible to an ex-Son of Freedom; she was paid a quarter a page. Mac dropped out of high school in Grade eleven, completing her secondary education by correspondence. She trained as a paramedic at the Justice Institute of British Columbia. Mac also worked at various times as a sign language interpreter, a bookstore clerk, and a child and youth advocate in a transition house.{{cite web|title=Out on the wire|url=http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/out-on-the-wire/|website=Quill & Quire|publisher=Quill and Quire|accessdate=15 October 2015|date=June 2006}}

Influences and inspiration

A self-confessed bookaholic, Mac credits Louise Fitzhugh, author of Harriet the Spy, with the realization of "what kind of power words carry, and how they can be used to sharpen your own identity and injure others." Other influences include: Anne Cameron, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro. Mac explains that Raymond Carver showed her that "the lives of working class people (my people) are filled with stories worth writing about too, and that you don't need to go on and on and on and on to relate human emotions when you can nail it down so adroitly with less."{{cite web|last1=Ramdimukkala |first1=Anupya |title=#fridayreads Anupya Pamidimukkala Interviews YA Author Carrie Mac |url=http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/teens/2014/10/fridayreads-anupya-pamidimukkala-interviews-ya-author-carrie-mac.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160813060638/http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/teens/2014/10/fridayreads-anupya-pamidimukkala-interviews-ya-author-carrie-mac.html |url-status=live |archive-date=13 August 2016 |website=TPL Teens |publisher=Toronto Public Library |accessdate=9 October 2015 |date=21 October 2014 }}

Writing for reluctant readers

Pain and Wastings, Jacked, Charmed, and Crush were written for Orca Book Publisher for the Soundings Series. The Soundings series is written specifically for reluctant or difficult to engage readers, also known as hi-lo readers (high interest, low reading level). It features contemporary themes, often including what might be considered controversial material and language.

Portrayal of queer characters

All of Mac's YA novels have queer, gay or questioning characters. She says of her work "I know for myself that I can't leave queer characters out of my writing, even if they're gay and only I know it, or I don't spell it out."{{cite web|last1=Lo|first1=Malinda|title=Interview with Carrie Mac|url=http://www.malindalo.com/2009/04/interview-with-carrie-mac|website=Malinda Lo|accessdate=1 November 2015|location=Web|date=21 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927230427/http://www.malindalo.com/2009/04/interview-with-carrie-mac/|archive-date=27 September 2015|url-status=dead}}

Critical reception

Quill and Quire describe Mac as a "powerhouse" and her novel The Opposite of Tidy as "irresistible and not to be missed."{{cite web|last1=O'Connell|first1=Grace|title=The Opposite of Tidy|url=http://www.quillandquire.com/review/the-opposite-of-tidy/|website=Quill and Quire|accessdate=1 November 2015|date=19 April 2012}} C.J. Bott, in VOYA, said of The Beckoners, "The powerful intensity in this book will either keep the reader riveted or forced to take breaks from the haunting discomfort."{{cite web|last1=Botts|first1=C.J.|title=The Beckoners|url=https://fvrl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1397945021_the_beckoners|website=Vancouver Public Library|publisher=Voice of Youth Advocate Reviews (VOYA)|accessdate=20 November 2015|date=February 2005}}

"Mac's experience as a paramedic gives her portrayal of their work an easy authority, and she sketches Ethan and his group home with a certain amount of precision and humour. The fluidity of the storytelling, as well as the dramatic circumstances of the story, are likely to attract Orca Soundings readers."{{cite web|last1=Baker|first1=Deirdre|title=Pain and Wastings|url=http://www.quillandquire.com/review/pain-wastings/|website=Quill and Quire|accessdate=19 November 2015|date=March 2008}}

Mac's book Charmed, about a girl who is trapped into prostitution, was banned by the Plano Independent School District in Texas, in 2006/2007. The book "was challenged due to profanity, sexual content and violence."{{cite book|editor1-last=Alvarado|editor1-first=Richard C.|title=Free People Read Freely|date=29 September 2007|publisher=American Civil Liberties Union of Texas|url=https://www.aclutx.org/reports/bannedbooks/bb2k7.pdf|accessdate=1 November 2015}} However, according to Dave Jenkinson, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education, the University of Manitoba, "Mac's authentic treatment of her subject matter carries through to the book's conclusion… Charmed is the gold standard of what hi-lo titles can be. Highly Recommended."{{cite web|last1=Jenkinson|first1=Dav|title=Charmed|url=https://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol11/no7/charmed.html|website=CM Magazine: Canadian Review of Materials.|publisher=University of Manitoba|accessdate=1 December 2015|date=26 November 2004}}

Personal life

Mac lives in Vancouver with her children. She is a queer{{Cite web|url=http://www.insidevancouver.ca/2016/08/31/five-lgbtq-vancouver-fiction-authors-you-should-know/|title=Five LGBTQ+ Vancouver Fiction Authors You Should Know|website=Inside Vancouver|date=31 August 2016 |access-date=2017-08-08}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.dailyxtra.com/edgy-or-honest-20394|title=Edgy or honest?|date=2006-10-24|work=Xtra|access-date=2017-08-08|language=en-US}} mom and attachment parent.{{cite web|last1=Ramdimukkala |first1=Anupya |title=#fridayreads Anupya Pamidimukkala Interviews YA Author Carrie Mac |url=http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/teens/2014/10/fridayreads-anupya-pamidimukkala-interviews-ya-author-carrie-mac.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160813060638/http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/teens/2014/10/fridayreads-anupya-pamidimukkala-interviews-ya-author-carrie-mac.html |url-status=live |archive-date=13 August 2016 |website=TPL Teens |publisher=Toronto Public Library |accessdate=9 October 2015 |date=21 October 2014 }}

Books

Triskelia trilogy:
The Droughtlanders (2006)
Retribution (2007)
Storm (2008)
Standalone works:
The Beckoners (2004)
The Gryphon Project (2010)
The Opposite of Tidy (2011)
10 Things I Can See From Here (2017)
Wildfire (2020)
Orca Soundings:
Charmed (2004)
Crush (2006)
Pain and Wastings (2008)
Jacked (2009)
The Way Back (2014)

Awards

Canadian Council for the Arts grants (2000, 2003, 2004 & 2008)
Arthur Ellis Award: Best Young Adult Crime Book (2005)
Canadian Library Association Honour Book (2005)
International Children's and Youth Literature White Raven list (2005) for The Beckoners
International Reading Association Young Adult Choices list (2006) for The Beckoners
Young Adult Canadian Book Award Honour Book (2007) for The Droughtlanders
Sunburst Award shortlist in young-adult category (2007) for The Beckoners and (2008) for Retribution
Stellar Book Award nomination (2009) for The Droughtlanders
Sheila A. Egoff Book Prize (2010) for The Gryphon Project
Canadian Library Association Young-Adult Honor Book selection (2010) for The Gryphon Project
CBC Non-fiction Literary Prize (2015)