Dennis Bock
{{COI|date=November 2013}}
{{Short description|Canadian writer and lecturer}}
Dennis Bock (born August 28, 1964) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer, lecturer at the University of Toronto, travel writer and book reviewer. His novel Going Home Again was published in Canada by HarperCollins and in the US by Alfred A. Knopf in August 2013. It was shortlisted for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Going Home Again earned a review in Kirkus Review.{{cite web |title=GOING HOME AGAIN {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/dennis-bock/going-home-again/ |website=www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews |language=en}}
The Communist's Daughter, published by HarperCollins in Canada and Knopf in the US in 2006, and later in France, the Netherlands, Greece and Poland, is a retelling of the final years in the life of the Canadian surgeon Norman Bethune.{{Cite book|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/dennis-bock/the-communists-daughter/|title=THE COMMUNIST'S DAUGHTER {{!}} Kirkus Reviews|language=en}}
His first novel, The Ash Garden, about various kinds of fallout from the Hiroshima bomb, was published in 2001, and was shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the International Dublin Literary Award, the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Regional Best Book). It won the 2002 Canada-Japan Literary Award and has been published in translation in Spain, Argentina, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France and Greece. Bock was reviewed in The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times (by Michiko Kakutani). His editor at Knopf, starting with The Ash Garden, is Gary Fisketjon.{{Cite web|url=http://nashvillepubliclibrary.org/writerscircle/jay-mcinerney-and-gary-fisketjon-april-writers-circle/|title=Nashville Public Library}}
After serving as fiction editor at the literary journal Blood & Aphorisms and holding writing residences at Yaddo, the Banff Centre, and Fundacion Valparaiso, in Spain, Bock published his first book, a short story collection Olympia, in 1998, for which he won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best debut short story collection in Canada, the Canadian Authors' Association Jubilee Award, and the Betty Trask Award in the UK.
His short stories have appeared in Glimmer Train, The Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories, The Journey Prize Anthology, and Coming Attractions. His travel writing and book reviews appear in The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Washington Post, and Outpost Magazine.
Personal life
Dennis Bock was born August 28, 1964, in Belleville, Ontario. He studied English literature and philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, and took one year off during that time to live in Spain. After completing his degree he returned to Madrid, Spain, where he lived for 4 years. It was there he finished writing Olympia. Bock lives in Toronto and has two sons.{{Cite web |url=http://dennisbock.com/bio/ |title=Bio |access-date=2014-01-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109194112/http://dennisbock.com/bio/ |archive-date=2014-01-09 |url-status=dead }} He teaches at the University of Toronto{{Cite web |url=https://learn.utoronto.ca/courses-programs/creative-writing/creative-writing-instructors |title=Creative Writing Instructors - School of Continuing Studies |access-date=2018-03-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810012251/https://learn.utoronto.ca/courses-programs/creative-writing/creative-writing-instructors |archive-date=2017-08-10 |url-status=dead }} and is on faculty at Humber College's School for Writers.{{Cite web |url=https://creativearts.humber.ca/faculty/dennis-bock.html |title=Dennis Bock |access-date=2018-03-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171219111555/http://creativearts.humber.ca/faculty/dennis-bock.html |archive-date=2017-12-19 |url-status=dead }}
Prizes and honours
class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Awards for Bock's writing !Year !Title !Award !Result ! |
1998
|Olympia |Winner |
1998
|Olympia |Winner |{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} |
1999
|Olympia |Shortlist |{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} |
2001
|{{Sortname|The|Ash Garden}} |Books in Canada First Novel Award |Shortlist |{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} |
2001
|{{Sortname|The|Ash Garden}} |Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Regional Best Book |Shortlist |{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} |
2002
|{{Sortname|The|Ash Garden}} |Kiriyama Pacific Rim Prize |Shortlist |{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} |
2002
|{{Sortname|The|Ash Garden}} |International Dublin Literary Award |Shortlist |{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} |
2002
|{{Sortname|The|Ash Garden}} |Canada-Japan Literary Award |Winner |{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} |
2012
|Going Home Again |Shortlist |"Giller Prize shortlist announced". Montreal Gazette, October 9, 2013.{{Cite web |date=2013-10-08 |title=The Scotiabank Giller Prize Announces its 2013 Shortlist |url=https://scotiabankgillerprize.ca/scotiabank-giller-prize-2013-shortlist/ |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=Scotiabank Giller Prize |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2013-10-08 |title=The 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize announces its shortlist |url=https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/the-2013-scotiabank-giller-prize-announces-its-shortlist-513074661.html |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=News Wire |language=en}} |
Bibliography
=Novels=
- The Ash Garden (2001)
- The Communist's Daughter (2006)
- Going Home Again (2013)
- The Good German (2020)
=Short stories=
- Olympia (1998)
References
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070220104129/http://www.dennisbock.ca/ Official site]
- [http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/profile.cfm?article_id=2121 Interview with Dennis Bock, Quill & Quire, August 2001]
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/books/review/Hajari.t.html?n=Top%2fFeatures%2fBooks%2fBook%20Reviews New York Times review of The Communist's Daughter, March 4, 2007]
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/books/review/going-home-again-by-dennis-bock.html New York Times review of Going Home Again, August 30, 2013]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bock, Dennis}}
Category:Canadian male novelists
Category:Canadian male short story writers
Category:University of Western Ontario alumni
Category:20th-century Canadian novelists
Category:21st-century Canadian novelists
Category:20th-century Canadian short story writers
Category:21st-century Canadian short story writers