Archie Crail

{{short description|South African-Canadian writer|bot=PearBOT 5}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Archie Crail

| birth_name =

| image =

| birth_date = 1948

| birth_place = Paarl, South Africa

| occupation = journalist, short story writer, playwright

| period = 1990s

| nationality = South African-Canadian

| notableworks = The Bonus Deal

| spouse =

| website =

}}

Archie Crail (born 1944 in Paarl, South Africa)"Can't feel safe, even in Saskatchewan". Windsor Star, February 3, 1995. is a South African-Canadian writer. He was a shortlisted nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 1992 Governor General's Awards for his short story collection The Bonus Deal."Ondaatje leads top literary nominees". Financial Post, November 7, 1992.

Background

A coloured South African of Khoisan descent,"The essence of politics; Relocated in Regina, South African writer explores his roots". Edmonton Journal, June 21, 1992. Crail was born and raised in Paarl. Educated at the University of South Africa,Heather Hodgson, Saskatchewan Writers: Lives Past and Present. University of Regina Press, 2004. {{ISBN|978-0889771635}}. p. 63. he was an anti-apartheid activist with the African National Congress, and studied theology under Desmond Tutu."A spinner of complex but sturdy prose". The Globe and Mail, November 28, 1992. He later spent several years living in South-West Africa, continuing his political activism with SWAPO, and briefly moved to Botswana before moving to Canada in 1980.

Crail and his family settled in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1980. Crail took classes at the University of Regina, including studying creative writing under Ven Begamudré.

Writing

His first work, a theatrical play titled Exile, won the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild literary competition in 1989"Writers pick up $4,800 in prizes". The Globe and Mail, June 7, 1989. and was produced by Saskatoon's 25th Street Theatre in 1990.[http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/25th-street-theatre-centre/ 25th Street Theatre Centre] at The Canadian Encyclopedia. A touring production of Exile was later mounted in South Africa.

The Bonus Deal was published by Coteau Books in 1992.Claire Rothman, "South African emigre shows lives at breaking point". The Gazette, December 5, 1992. Several of the short stories in The Bonus Deal were also dramatized for CBC Radio.

In 1991, after the South African government lifted its ban on exiled African National Congress members returning to South Africa, Crail attended the organization's conference in Durban.