Guy Gavriel Kay
Encyclopedia
Guy Gavriel Kay is a Canadian
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...

 author of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 fiction. Many of his novels are set in fictional realm
Fictional universe
A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....

s that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 during the reign of Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...

 or Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 during the time of El Cid
El Cid
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar , known as El Cid Campeador , was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat...

. Those works are published and marketed as historical fantasy
Historical fantasy
Historical fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy and related to historical fiction, which makes use of specific elements of real world history. It is used as an umbrella term for the sword and sorcery genre and sometimes, if fantasy is involved, the sword-and-sandal genre too...

, though the author himself has expressed a preference to shy away from genre categorization when possible.

Kay has written over 10 novels and numerous shorter works. His works have been translated into 22 languages, and have sold over two million copies.

Biography

Kay was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, and raised in 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...

, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, both in Canada. His background is Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

.

When Christopher Tolkien
Christopher Tolkien
Christopher Reuel Tolkien is the third and youngest son of the author J. R. R. Tolkien , and is best known as the editor of much of his father's posthumously published work. He drew the original maps for his father's The Lord of the Rings, which he signed C. J. R. T. The J...

 needed an assistant to edit his father J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

's unpublished work, he chose Kay, then a student at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

, whose parents were friends of Baillie Tolkien's parents. Kay moved to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

 in 1974 to assist Tolkien in the editing of The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...

. There he learnt a lot about writing and editing, and later admitted of Tolkien's influence, "to be successful in fantasy, you have to take the measure of Tolkien — work with his strengths and away from his weaknesses".

He returned to Canada in 1976 to finish a law degree at 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...

, and became interested in fiction writing.

Kay became Principal Writer and Associate Producer for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

 radio series, The Scales of Justice.

In 1984, Kay's first fantasy work, The Summer Tree
The Summer Tree
The Summer Tree is the first novel of The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay.-Plot summary:The books opens in our own world, at the University of Toronto, where the five main characters are all fellow students...

, the first volume of the trilogy The Fionavar Tapestry
The Fionavar Tapestry
The Fionavar Tapestry is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Guy Gavriel Kay, set partly in our own contemporary world, but mostly in the fictional world of Fionavar. It is the story of five University of Toronto senior law and medical students, who are drawn into the 'first world of the Tapestry' by...

, was published.

Most of Kay's subsequent works have a link to the realm of Fionavar, even if it is only a single reference to "... the first of all worlds...".

Kay is married to Laura Beth Cohen.

Awards

  • Kay won the 1985 Scales of Justice Award for best media treatment of a legal issue, Canadian Law Reform Commission, 1985, for Second Time Around.
  • The Wandering Fire won the 1987 Aurora Award in the English category, and the 1987 Casper Award for best speculative fiction
    Speculative fiction
    Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as...

    .
  • Kay was runner up for the White Pine Award
    White Pine Award
    The White Pine Award is an annual literature award sponsored by the Ontario Library Association that has awarded Canadian young adult books since 2002...

     in 2007 for Ysabel.
  • Ysabel was the winner of the 2008 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel
    World Fantasy Award for Best Novel
    This World Fantasy Award is given to the fantasy novel or novels voted best by a panel of judges, and presented each year at the World Fantasy Convention.-1975:...

    .
  • Kay has also won the International Goliardos Award for his work in the fantasy field.

Nominations

  • Kay was nominated for a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award
    Mythopoeic Awards
    The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given by the Mythopoeic Society to authors of outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas; the full criteria and description can be read on the Mythopoeic Society's -Mythopoeic Fantasy...

     for Adult Literature in 1985 for The Summer Tree.
  • Kay was nominated for a World Fantasy Award
    World Fantasy Award
    The World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...

     and an Aurora Award in 1991 for Tigana.
  • Kay was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 1999 for Sailing to Sarantium, and in 2001 for Lord of Emperors.
  • The translation of The Lions of Al-Rassan was nominated for the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy Geffen Award
    Geffen Award
    The Geffen Award is an annual literary award given by the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy since 1999, and presented at the Annual Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, ICon Festival...

     in 2005.
  • Kay was nominated for the Canadian Sunburst Award
    Sunburst Award
    The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is an annual award given for a speculative fiction novel or a book-length collection.-History:The name of the award comes from the title of the first novel by Phyllis Gotlieb, Sunburst ....

    nomination in 2005 for The Last Light of the Sun.

External links


Interviews

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