Rick Salutin

{{Short description|Canadian novelist, playwright, journalist, and critic}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Rick Salutin

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|mf=yes|1942|08|30}}

| birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada

| occupation = Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Critic

| awards = Books in Canada First Novel Award, Chalmers Award, Chalmer Outstanding Play Award, W.H. Smith Books in Canada First Novel Award, Toronto Arts Award

| children = 1

| partner = Theresa Burke

}}

Rick Salutin (born August 30, 1942) is a Canadian novelist, playwright, journalist, and critic and has been writing for more than forty years. Until October 1, 2010, he wrote a regular column in The Globe and Mail; on February 11, 2011, he began a weekly column in the Toronto Star.

He is a contributing editor of This Magazine. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Near Eastern and Jewish Studies at Brandeis University and got his Master of Arts degree in religion at Columbia University. He also studied philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City. He was once a trade union organizer in Toronto and participated in the Artistic Woodwork strike.{{cite book |last=Noonan | first=James |editor1-first=Eugene| editor1-last=Benson |editor1-link=Eugene Benson |editor2-first=William | editor2-last=Toye |editor2-link=William Toye (author) |title=The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1983 |pages=1032–4}}

Salutin is interested in communication and has praised Harold Innis, an economist who taught at the University of Toronto and conceived of the staples thesis, for his outlook in communications. Salutin has a child with The Fifth Estate journalist Theresa Burke,{{cite magazine |date=June 2002 |title=The Rickter Scale |magazine=Toronto Life |volume=36 |page=9}} whom he has cited as the model for the characters Amy Bert and Antia in The Womanizer.

Journalism

Salutin has written in many magazines, including Harpers, Maclean's, Canadian Business, Toronto Life, Weekend, Saturday Night, Quest, TV Times, Today, and This Magazine. He wrote "The Culture Vulture" column for many years in This Magazine and received National Newspaper awards for it.{{rp|1032}} He won the National Newspaper Award for best columnist for a column he wrote in The Globe and Mail.{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/rick-salutin/ |location=Toronto |work=The Globe and Mail |title=The Globe and Mail - Rick Salutin |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101101192807/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/rick-salutin/ |archivedate=November 1, 2010 }}

He introduced cartoon strips to This Magazine and convinced Margaret Atwood to regularly collaborate. She made a cartoon strip called "Kanadian Kultchur Komics".{{cite book |last=Gabilliet | first=Jean-Paul |editor1-first=Coral Anne| editor1-last=Howells |editor2-first=Eva-Marie| editor2-last= Kroller |title=The Cambridge History of Canadian Literature |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2009 |page=470 |chapter=Chapter 23: Comic art and bande dessinee: from the funnies to graphic novels}}

In Waiting for Democracy: A Citizen's Journal (1989), he expresses his thoughts on the federal election in 1989 and writes about interviewing people before the election.{{rp|1033}}

Drama

Salutin has an interest in drama and performing arts. His first play, Fanshen, unpublished, was adapted from William Hinton's book Fanshen and was produced by Toronto Workshop Productions. The Adventures of an Immigrant shows that he is concerned about poverty and other hardships in Western society. His unpublished Maria was a drama on CBC Television about a woman fighting to put factory workers in the union.

His first published play was 1837: The Farmers' Revolt about the revolt led by William Lyon Mackenzie. This play was created at Theatre Passe Muraille and produced on CBC Television in 1975.{{rp|1032}} 1837 won the Chalmers award for best Canadian play in 1977.{{cite book |editor-last=New |editor-first=W.H. |editor-link=W. H. New |title=Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2002}}

His most successful play, Les Canadiens (1977), written with help from goaltender Ken Dryden, won him the Chalmers Outstanding Play award.

Salutin helped found the Guild of Canadian Playwrights and in 1978 became chairman.{{rp|1032}} Another play he wrote is Joey (1981).{{cite web |title=Rick Salutin |url=http://www.library.yorku.ca/ccm/ArchivesSpecialCollections/FindingAids/CanadianLiterary/salutin-rick.htm |publisher=York University |access-date=April 25, 2020}}

Novels

His first novel, A Man of Little Faith, is about a religious man discovering himself in a Jewish community. It received the W.H. Smith Books in Canada First Novel Award. His books Marginal Notes: Challenges to the Mainstream and Living in a Dark Age are based on many of his articles from This Magazine.{{rp|1033}} He won the Toronto Arts award for writing and publishing.

Book review

Taken from a book review of The Womanizer: "It's both lively and witty, but not as light as it might seem on first glance."{{cite book |last=Canton | first=Jeffrey |editor1-first=Jo| editor1-last=Riviello |editor2-first=Clare| editor2-last=Doyle |title=Book Review Digest}}

Published writing

= Books =

{{cite book |last=Salutin |first=Rick |title=Good Buy Canada! |year=1975 |author-mask=2}}
{{cite book |last=Salutin |first=Rick |title=Kent Rowley: A Canadian Union Life |year=1980 |author-mask=2}}
{{cite book |last=Salutin |first=Rick |title=Marginal Notes: Challenges to the Mainstream |year=1984 |author-mask=2}}
{{cite book |last=Salutin |first=Rick |title=A Man of Little Faith |year=1988 |author-mask=2}}
{{cite book |last=Salutin |first=Rick |title=Waiting for Democracy |year=1989 |author-mask=2}}
{{cite book |last=Salutin |first=Rick |title=Living in a Dark Age |year=1991 |author-mask=2}}
{{cite book |last=Salutin |first=Rick |title=The Age of Improv |year=1995 |author-mask=2}}
{{cite book |last=Salutin |first=Rick |title=The Womanizer |year=2002 |author-mask=2}}