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Elizabeth Hay (novelist)
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
novelist and short story writer.
Her novel A Student of Weather (2000) was a finalist for the Giller Prize and won the CAA MOSAID Technologies Award for Fiction and the TORGI Award. She has been a nominee for the Governor General's Award
Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields. The first was conceived in 1937 by Lord Tweedsmuir, a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction who created the Governor...
twice, for Small Change in 1997
1997 Governor General's Awards
The winners of the 1997 Governor General's Literary Awards were announced on November 18 by Donna Scott, Chairman of the Canada Council for the Arts...
and for Garbo Laughs in 2003
2003 Governor General's Awards
The 2003 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were announced on November 12. Each winner received a cheque for $15,000.-Fiction:*Douglas Glover, Elle*Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake*Elizabeth Hay, Garbo Laughs...
, and won the Giller Prize for her 2007 novel Late Nights on Air
Late Nights on Air
Late Nights on Air is a novel by Canadian writer Elizabeth Hay, published by McClelland & Stewart in 2007. It was named the winner of the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize....
.
In 2002, she received the Marian Engel Award
Marian Engel Award
The Marian Engel Award was a Canadian literary award, presented each year from 1986 to 2007 by the Writers' Trust of Canada in memory of the writer Marian Engel...
, presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada
Writers' Trust of Canada
The Writers' Trust of Canada is a non-profit organization which provides financial support to Canadian writers.Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, David Young and Margaret Laurence, the Writers' Trust of Canada was registered as a non-profit organization in 1976...
to an established female writer for her body of work — including novels, short fiction, and creative non-fiction.
Life
Hay was born on October 22, 1951 in Owen Sound, OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. She is the daughter of a high school principal and a painter. She spent a year in England when she was fifteen, then returned to Canada to attend the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
.
In January, 1972, she quit university before finishing and travelled out west by train. In 1974 she moved to Yellowknife, NWT. She worked for ten years as a CBC
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
radio broadcaster in Yellowknife, Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and then moved to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, where she freelanced. In 1986 she moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and then returned to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1992 with her family. She lives in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
with her husband Mark. She has two children: a son, Ben, and a daughter, Sochi.
Critical reputation and style
In an interview with the CBC in 2007, Hay commented on the relationship between her writing and her career in radio. "When I worked in Yellowknife," she said, "I was writing poetry and stories on the side and not getting very far. I felt kind of schizophrenic, like my radio work was one type of thing and my writing was another and there was a gap between. That became even more pronounced when I started working for CBC’s Sunday Morning, doing radio documentaries. I took me a while to realize that there didn’t need to be such a wide gap between those two forms of writing, and that they could cross-fertilize. Good radio writing is similar to any good writing. It’s direct and economical and intimate and full of detail. Also, it sets your visual imagination working."Novels
- A Student of Weather (2000) McClelland & Stewart ISBN 0771037899
- Garbo Laughs (2003) McClelland & Stewart
- Late Nights on AirLate Nights on AirLate Nights on Air is a novel by Canadian writer Elizabeth Hay, published by McClelland & Stewart in 2007. It was named the winner of the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize....
(2007) McClelland & Stewart
Short stories
- “The Friend” (in Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories, edited by Jane UrquhartJane UrquhartJane Urquhart, OC is a Canadian novelist and poet.-Biography:Born 200 miles north of Thunder Bay, Ontario in Little Longlac , Ontario, Jane Urquhart is the third of three children and the only daughter of Marian and Walter Carter, a prospector and mining engineer...
, 2007, Penguin Canada) - "Jet in England", Ottawa Magazine summer fiction issue, Jul/Aug 2007
- "The Food of Love", Ottawa Citizen, Holiday Edition, 2008
- "Of Mattresses and Men", Ottawa Magazine summer fiction issue, July/Aug 2008
- "Last Poems", The New Quarterly, Spring 2009
- "City as Redhead", The New Quarterly, Spring 2009
Non-fiction
- Crossing the Shadow Line (1989) Black Moss Press
- The Only Snow in Havana (1992) Cormorant BooksCormorant BooksCormorant Books Inc is a Canadian book publishing company.Cormorant Books specializes in fiction by new and emerging Canadian writers, reissues of out-of-print classics of Canadian literature, and English translations of works by Quebec writers.- History :...
- Captivity Tales: Canadians in New York (1993) New Star Books
- Only Snow in Havana (2008) Cormorant BooksCormorant BooksCormorant Books Inc is a Canadian book publishing company.Cormorant Books specializes in fiction by new and emerging Canadian writers, reissues of out-of-print classics of Canadian literature, and English translations of works by Quebec writers.- History :...
Essays
- “Ten Beauty Tips You Never Asked For” (in Dropped Threads 2, edited by Carol ShieldsCarol ShieldsCarol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.-Biography:Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois...
and Marjorie Anderson, 2003, Vintage Canada) - "The Most Fearless Book I Read", (in The Book I Read, edited by Peder Zane, 2004, Norton)
- “My Debt to D.H. Lawrence” (in Writing Life: Celebrated Canadian and International Authors on Writing and Life, edited by Constance Rooke, 2006, McClelland & Stewart)
Anthologies
- Short Fiction, an Anthology, edited by Rosemary Sullivan and Mark Levene, Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2003 - The Scotiabank Giller Prize 15 Years: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Canadian Fiction, Penguin, 2008
- Best Canadian Essays 2010, Tightrope Books, 2010
Prizes and honours
- 1997 Finalist, Governor General’s Award for Fiction (for Small Change)
- 1997 Finalist, Rogers Communication Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize (for Small Change)
- 1997 Finalist, Trillium Book AwardTrillium Book AwardThe Trillium Award is given annually by the government of the Province of Ontario and is open to books in any genre: fiction, non-fiction, drama, children's books, and poetry. Anthologies, new editions, re-issues and translations are not eligible. Three jury members per language judge the...
(for Small Change) - 2000 CAA MOSAID Technologies Award for Fiction
- 2000 Finalist, Giller Prize (for A Student of Weather)
- 2000 Finalist, Ottawa Book AwardOttawa Book AwardOttawa Book Award and Prix du livre d'Ottawa is a Canadian literary award presented by the City of Ottawa to the best English and French language books written in the previous year by a living author residing in Ottawa. There are 4 awards each year: English fiction and non-fiction ; French fiction...
(for A Student of Weather) - 2000 TORGI Award
- 2002 Marian Engel Award (Writers’ Trust of Canada)
- 2003 Finalist, Governor-General’s Award for Fiction (for A Student of Weather)
- 2003 Ottawa Book AwardOttawa Book AwardOttawa Book Award and Prix du livre d'Ottawa is a Canadian literary award presented by the City of Ottawa to the best English and French language books written in the previous year by a living author residing in Ottawa. There are 4 awards each year: English fiction and non-fiction ; French fiction...
(for Garbo Laughs) - 2007 Giller Prize (for Late Nights on Air)