|
Clarke, Austin Chesterfield, novelist, short-story writer, journalist (b at St James, Barbados 26 July 1934). Clarke arrived in Canada in 1955 to study at the University of Toronto but subsequently ventured into employment in various fields, including journalism. In due course, he turned increasingly to fiction, grist for his work being provided primarily by his interactions with West Indian immigrants, his own experiences as a black in Canada, and his familiarity with colonial and post-colonial Barbadian society. His first published novel, The Survivors of the Crossing (1964), dealt with the life of blacks on a Barbadian plantation and was quickly followed by Amongst Thistles and Thorns (1965), which again focused on the West Indian peasant and sought to restore him "to his true and original status of personality." Next came Clarke's trilogy - The Meeting Point (1967), Storm of Fortune (1973) and The Bigger Light (1975) - which was set in Toronto and offered the first comprehensive treatment in fiction of the complexities and ambiguities of black, West Indian immigrant life in Canada. Clarke also wrote short stories, his first published collection being When He Was Free and Young and He Used to Wear Silks (1971). This work appeared shortly after the start of a series of appointments as visiting lecturer at such institutions as Yale University (1968-70), Duke University (1971-72) and the University of Texas (1973), which enabled Clarke to interact with black American intellectuals, artists and activists and in turn led him to a greater interest in the black experience in North America, specifically to such themes as black marginalization, the emasculation of the black male and the question of black identity.
After the distractions of his designation as the Cultural Attaché of Barbados in Washington in 1973 and as Acting General Manager of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation in Barbados in 1975, he returned to his writing, his experiences in Barbados inspiring the novel The Prime Minister (1977), which highlighted the moral bankruptcy of politicians and political leaders in neo-colonial Barbados. Clarke followed this work up in 1979-82 with a long series of articles in the Barbadian newspaper The Nation on various dimensions of Barbadian life. His next major work was a scintillating autobiography, Growing up Stupid under the Union Jack (1980), a satire of the main institutions of the Barbados of his youth, which won the 1980 Casa de las Americas Literary Prize. This was followed by two short-story collections - When Women Rule (1985) and Nine Men Who Laughed (1986) - which dealt mainly with black immigrants and by the novel Proud Empires (1986), which again explored life in neo-colonial Barbadian society. Clarke's writing career faltered briefly on his appointment in 1988 to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, but when he finally returned to his writing in 1992 his journalistic interests were apparent in Public Enemies: Police Violence and Black Youth (1992) and In This City (1992), two tracts on racial issues written with some balance and moderation. He also wrote A Passage Back Home: A Personal Reminiscence of Samuel Selvon (1994). His main published work in the early 1990s, however, was another collection of stories, There Are No Elders (1993). In recent years, Clarke's career has soared. He published The Origin of Waves (1997), for which he won the 1998 Rogers Communication Writers Trust Prize, and another novel, The Question (1999). In 1999, he was again honoured for his work, this time with the W.O. Mitchell Prize. Clarke has also ventured into another genre, as evidenced by Pigtails n' Breadfruit: The Rituals of Slave Food, a Barbadian Memoir (1999), which cleverly wedded local recipes with political, social and historical commentaries, and Love and Sweet Food: A Culinary Memoir (2004). He also re-issued some of his stories in a new collection, Choosing the Coffin: The Best Stories of Austin Clarke (2004). His crowning achievement, however, was the publication of his Joycean tome The Polished Hoe (2002), for which he was awarded the prestigious Giller Prize for fiction (2002), the 16th Annual Trillium Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Best Book Award for Canada and the Caribbean region (2003) and the Commonwealth Writers Award for best book.
Author
STELLA ALGOO-BAKSH
Links to Other Sites
Austin Clarke
Read an insightful interview with acclaimed Canadian novelist, Austin Clarke, at this January Magazine website.
Austin Clarke
A 2003 profile of highly acclaimed Canadian author Austin Clarke. From the Canadian book industry magazine “Quill & Quire.”
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| David Thompson was an outsider, struggling to find a foothold in the empire that had consumed his country... |
|
| Pierre Elliott Trudeau, politician, writer, constitutional lawyer, prime minister of Canada 1968-79 and 1980-84 (b at ... |
|
|
| Few countries were affected as severely as Canada by the worldwide Depression of the 1930s. It is estimated that ... |
|
|
| Louis Riel, Métis leader, founder of Manitoba, central figure in the NORTH-WEST REBELLION (b at Red River ... |
|
|
| Few countries were affected as severely as Canada by the worldwide Depression of the 1930s. It is estimated that ... |
|
|
| Evangelical Christian Church, often called the Christian Church (Christian Disciples), is a denomination stemming from ... |
|
|
| The Group of Seven was founded in 1920 as an organization of self-proclaimed modern artists. The original members - ... |
|
|
| Sears Canada Inc, headquartered in Toronto, is a Canadian retailer incorporated in 1952. In 1953 operating under the ... |
|
|
| John Ware, "Nigger John," horseman, rancher (b near Georgetown, SC 1845; d near Brooks, Alta 11 Sept 1905). ... |
|
|
| Land claims are dealt with by a process established by the federal government to enable INDIANS, INUIT and ... |
|
Browse the rich visual resources of The Canadian Encyclopedia through thematic galleries of Canadian Art, History, Nature, People, and Science and Technology.
Illustrations, lively text, animations, sounds and games help make learning about Canadian history, art, geography, architecture and other topics entertaining as well as informative.
The ultimate test of your knowledge of Canada, trivial and otherwise. You can choose from more than 60 dynamic quizzes with visual or text clues. Your scores depend on the speed with which you answer and the number of clues you need. Results are sent to you by email and high scores are posted on the site.
This unique resource includes more than 6000 events from Canadian and world history. It can be searched by era, subject, keyword or date. To find out what happened on your birthday, select the month and day of your birth.
This selection of the 100 "greatest" events in Canadian history was made by editor in chief James H. Marsh to draw attention to events that have left an indelible memory in the minds of later generations.
| THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC IN CANADA |
|
| Publications Chant de mon pays. Publishing house founded in 1977 at Mont-St-Hilaire near Montreal. Under the presidency of Joan Castell since its founding, the firm has published mostlylight music from Quebec and has issued ... |
|
|
