Audrey Thomas
{{Short description|Canadian novelist and short story writer}}{{Infobox author
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|17 November 1935}}
| honorific_suffix = OC
| birth_name = Audrey Grace Callahan
| nationality = Canadian
| occupation = Novelist and short story writer
| awards = Marian Engel Award (1987)
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (1984, 1990, 1995)
| birth_place = Binghamton, New York
| years_active = 1965–2014
| education = {{plainlist}}
- Smith College (BA,1957)
- St Andrews University
- University of British Columbia (MA, 1963)
{{endplainlist}}
}}
Audrey Grace Thomas, OC (née Callahan; born 17 November 1935){{Cite book |last=Nischik |first=Reingard M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LLwj_ZQBkhwC&pg=PA247 |title=The Canadian Short Story: Interpretations |date=2007 |publisher=Camden House |isbn=978-1-57113-127-0 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Thompson |first=Veronica |date=2013-12-16 |title=Audrey Grace Thomas |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/audrey-grace-thomas |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |archive-date=2023-02-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230211093335/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/audrey-grace-thomas |url-status=live }} is a Canadian novelist and short story writer who lives on Galiano Island, British Columbia. Her stories often have feminist themes and include exotic settings.Reingard M. Nischik. [https://books.google.com/books?id=VYgTaGwa4nsC&pg=PA318 History of Literature in Canada: English-Canadian and French-Canadian]. Camden House; 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-57113-359-5}}. p. 318–. She is a recipient of the Marian Engel Award.
Biography
Thomas was born 17 November 1935 in Binghamton, New York. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in Massachusetts in 1957,{{Cite web |title=Thomas, Audrey (Grace) |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/thomas-audrey-grace |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=Encyclopedia.com |archive-date=2022-12-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221208142143/https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/thomas-audrey-grace |url-status=live }} then studied at St. Andrews University in Scotland before teaching in England. In 1959, she immigrated to Canada,{{Cite book |title=The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |editor-last=Benson |editor-first=Eugene |location=Toronto |page=1113 |editor-last2=Toye |editor-first2=William}} where she received a Master of Arts degree from University of British Columbia in 1963. In 1994, she received an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.
From 1964 to 1966, Thomas lived in Ghana, and some of her stories are set there and in other distant places.[https://nationalpost.com/afterword/local-customs-by-audrey-thomas-review "Local Customs, by Audrey Thomas: Review"]. National Post, February 21, 2014[https://roommagazine.com/issues/audrey-thomas "Audrey Thomas"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926001455/http://roommagazine.com/issues/audrey-thomas |date=2020-09-26 }} | Room Magazine.
She published her first story, "If One Green Bottle...", in 1967.
Thomas lived in Edinburgh, Scotland in the 1980s, and wrote articles for Saturday Night Magazine.Linda L. Richards, [https://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/athomas.html "Audrey Thomas"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209033450/https://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/athomas.html |date=2023-02-09 }}, January Magazine.
Beginning in 1990, Thomas was a visiting professor at Concordia University in Montreal. She also spent time as writer-in-residence at the University of Victoria, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and David Thompson University Centre.
In 2014, she published her eighteenth book, Local Customs.[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/local-customs-a-take-on-19th-century-womans-mysterious-death-not-so-much-a-work-of-historical-fiction-as-an-act-of-channelling/article17618210/ "Local Customs: A take on 19th Century woman's death no so much a work of historical fiction as an act of channelling"]. Review by SARA O'LEARY, The Globe and Mail, 21 March 2014.
Awards and honours
From 1984 to 1986, Thomas received the Canada-Scotland Writer's Literary Fellowship, and in 1987, she won the Marian Engel Award for her body of work. In 1989, she receive the Canada-Australia Literary Prize. In 2003, she won the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2008, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.{{cite web |title=Governor General Announces New Appointments to the Order of Canada |url=http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=5447 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090908213224/http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=5447 |archivedate=8 September 2009}}
| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Awards for Thomas's writing !Year !Title !Award !Result !Ref. |
| 1966
|"If One Green Bottle..." |Atlantic First Award |Winner |
| 1984
|Intertidal Life |Winner |{{Cite book |last=Rosenthal |first=Caroline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1Nwh76UE8wC&pg=PA29 |title=Narrative Deconstructions of Gender in Works by Audrey Thomas, Daphne Marlatt, and Louise Erdrich |date=2003 |publisher=Camden House |isbn=978-1-57113-267-3 |language=en}} |
| 1984
|Intertidal Life |Governor General's Award for English-language fiction |Finalist |James Adams, "Local writers nominated for award". Edmonton Journal, May 16, 1985. |
| 1990
|Wild Blue Yonder |Winner |
| 1995
|Coming Down from Wa |Winner |
| 1996
|Coming Down from Wa |Governor General's Award for English-language fiction |Finalist |Judy Stoffman, "It's Atwood ahead again in book race". Toronto Star, October 18, 1996. |
| 2006
|Tattycoram |Shortlist | |
Bibliography
=Novels=
- Mrs. Blood – 1970
- Munchmeyer and Prospero on the Island – 1971
- Songs My Mother Taught Me – 1973
- Blown Figures – 1974
- Latakia – 1979
- Intertidal Life – 1984
- Graven Images – 1993
- Coming Down from Wa – 1995
- Isobel Gunn – 1999{{Cite web |date=2004-02-22 |title=Isobel Gunn |url=https://quillandquire.com/review/isobel-gunn/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=Quill and Quire |language=en |archive-date=2022-08-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220808065422/https://quillandquire.com/review/isobel-gunn/ |url-status=live }}
- Tattycoram
- Local Customs – 2014
=Short stories=
- Ten Green Bottles – 1967
- ladies and escorts – 1977
- Real Mothers – 1981
- Two in the Bush and Other Stories – 1981
- Goodbye Harold, Good Luck – 1986
- The Wild Blue Yonder – 1990
- The Path of Totality – 2001
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- The archives of Audrey Thomas [http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=3673019&lang=eng (Thomas Audrey fonds, R11818)] are held at Library and Archives Canada
{{Marian Engel Award}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Audrey}}
Category:Canadian women novelists
Category:Canadian people of American descent
Category:Officers of the Order of Canada
Category:20th-century Canadian novelists
Category:21st-century Canadian novelists
Category:Canadian women short story writers
Category:20th-century Canadian women writers
Category:21st-century Canadian women writers
Category:20th-century Canadian short story writers
Category:21st-century Canadian short story writers
Category:University of British Columbia alumni