TORONTO, November 17, 2008 -- York University alumnus Joseph Boyden (BA Hons. '91) has been awarded the15th annual Scotiabank Giller Prize for his latest book of fiction – Through Black Spruce.
The Giller Prize win comes with prestige, recognition and a $50,000 cash award. It is Canada’s richest prize for fiction awarded annually to the best Canadian novel or collection of short stories published in English.
Through Black Spruce (Viking Canada, 2008) follows the intertwining lives of Annie Bird and her bush pilot Cree uncle Will Bird in northern Ontario as they deal with the disappearance of Annie’s sister Suzanne, a New York model. Annie, a tomboy, a loner and a hunter, leaves her uncle Will behind to search for her sister. That search takes her to Toronto and New York to modelling studios and parties, while Will faces his own difficulties at home where he is beaten into a coma by drug dealers.
“In a gripping story filled with humour, suspense and remarkable insights into both nature and human nature, Joseph Boyden takes us on two journeys…. In spare prose that ranges from lyrical to brutal, the two journeys are brought together brilliantly. Joseph Boyden shows us unforgettable characters and a northern landscape in a way we have never seen them before,” say this year’s Giller Prize jury members – internationally known author Margaret Atwood, a former Giller Prize winner, Liberal MP and former Ontario premier Bob Rae and Colm Toíbín, a journalist and author.
Through Black Spruce beat out four other books on the 2008 Giller shortlist – Barnacle Love (Doubleday Canada) by Anthony De Sa, Good to A Fault (Freehand Books/Broadview Press) by Marina Endicott, Cockroach (House of Anansi Press) by Rawi Hage and The Boys in the Trees (Henry Holt/HB Fenn) by Mary Swan.
In a piece he wrote for YorkU magazine in 2006 (see Back Talk), Boyden spoke about his gamble on writing fiction. A Canadian with Irish, Scottish and Métis roots, and one of 11 children, Boyden studied creative writing at York and pursued an MFA at the University of New Orleans, where he has taught writing for the last 10 years. He divides his time between Louisiana and northern Ontario. Boyden’s wife Amanda Boyden, author of Pretty Little Dirty (Vintage/Random House, 2006), is also a member of the creative writing faculty at the University of New Orleans.
Boyden’s aboriginal heritage plays an important role in his work, as does the military history of his family. His father, a doctor who died when Boyden was just eight years old, was a decorated Second World War veteran.
Boyden’s first novel, Three Day Road, inspired by the true story of legendary First World War Ojibwa sniper Francis Pegahmagabow, tells the tale of Cree soldier Xavier Bird's experiences during the First World War with his best friend. Three Day Road won the 2005 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the 2005 McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award. It was long-listed for the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and nominated for the 2005 Governor General’s Literary Award.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as more than 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 26 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
-30-
