Jack Hodgins
Encyclopedia
For the fictional character from Bones (TV series)
see Jack Hodgins (Bones)
Jack Hodgins (born October 3, 1938) is a Canadian
novelist and short story writer.
Born in the Comox Valley
, British Columbia
, he attended the University of British Columbia
, where he was encouraged by Earle Birney
. He worked as a high school teacher of English in Nanaimo, British Columbia, before taking a position at the University of Victoria
in the Creative Writing Department.
Critically acclaimed, among his best received works is Broken Ground (1998), a historical novel
set after the First World War
, for which he received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
.
where is the story "After the Season"
In 1968, his first piece of literary work was accepted by a publication, and the exposure allowed him the chance to expand his work in print. With the publication of his first book of short stories, “Spit Delaney’s Island” (1976), and his first novel “The Invention of the World” (1977), Jack Hodgins was well on his way to becoming a recognized name in Canadian literature.
He began receiving short-term teaching positions at universities throughout Canada, including Simon Fraser University and the University of Ottawa. (http://www.nwpassages.com/bios/hodgins.asp). His passion to educate led him around the world- he lectured in countries such as Japan, Finland, Norway, Germany, Spain, and Australia. In 1983, he accepted a position as a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Victoria. He and his family settled themselves in Victoria and stayed through until the time of his retirement from teaching, in 2002.
Hodgins continues his life in Victoria today and occasionally gives lectures on writing and speaks at a workshop in Mallorca, Spain annually. Hodgins has received much recognition for his work including the Eaton's BC Book Award
for “Spit Delaney’s Island,” the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence
in 2006, and the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, a play based on several short stories from his book “The Barclay Family Theatre” was made into an opera by composer Christopher Donnison and premiered on stage in Victoria, BC. His life has been commemorated in a National Film Board Film entitled Jack Hodgins' Island.
In an email interview with students from the University of Victoria, Hodgins elaborates on place affecting his writing, and uses “Macken Charm” as his example.
“In The Macken Charm the family gathers (after a family funeral) at the site of a burnt hotel owned by the family. This place exists still. My own memories go back to playing as a child in that hotel when it was no longer in use. I knew that my parents began their married life in that hotel—the old uncle who owned it asked them to move in and look after it and them. My mother learned to cook
on a stove big enough for a hotel dining room full of guests! All of this is in the novel, pretty well just as it happens, though the characters are fictitious replacements for the originals. The beach, the trees, the roads, the cars of 1956, the store, the funeral parlour, the bridge over the river in Courtenay, the glacier—they're all there. The story is fiction but the place is real.”
Hodgins, Jack. E-mail. 28 November, 2008.
2006 Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence
2006 Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award "for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia"
2004 Honorary D.Litt, University of Victoria
2004 Distance: short-listed for the inaugural City of Victoria book award
2004 Distance: long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin Award
2000 Broken Ground: the Torgi Talking Book of the Year
2000 Broken Ground: long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin Award
2000 Broken Ground: the Ethel Wilson Prize Prize for fiction in British Columbia
1999 Broken Ground: The Drummer General Award (Different Drummer Bookstore)
1999 Broken Ground: jury choice as "best novel of the year" in Quill and Quire
1999 Broken Ground: in Globe and Mail "top ten"
1999 Elected to the Royal Society of Canada
1998 Honorary D.Litt, Malaspina University-College
1996 "Finding Merville": (Comox Valley Record) first place in Neville Shanks Memorial Award for Historical Writing.
1995 Honorary D.Litt, University of British Columbia
1988 The Honorary Patron: short listed for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour
1988 The Honorary Patron: the Commonwealth Literature Prize (Canada-Caribbean region)
1986 The Canada-Australia prize
1979 The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne: The Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction
1978 The Invention of the World: shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award
1978 The Invention of the World: the Gibson's First Novel Award
1977 Spit Delaney's Island: short listed for the Governor General's Award
1977 Spit Delaney's Island: the Eaton's B.C. Book Award
1973 "After the Season": the President's Medal, University of Western Ontario
Northwest Review
Antigonish Review
Wascana Review
Descant (Texas)
Capilano Review
Prism: international
Paris Intercontinental
Saturday Night
Vancouver
Westerly
Story
Toronto Life
North American Review
Event
Canadian Fiction Magazine
Sound Heritage
Alphabet
Viva
Journal of Canadian Fiction
The Canadian Forum
Forum (Houston)
Island No.2
Meanjin
The Literary Half-yearly
Overland
Voice and Vision, edited with W.H. New: (McClelland and Stewart)
The Frontier Experience: (Macmillan of Canada, 1975)
The West Coast Experience: (Macmillan of Canada, 1976)
BEGINNINGS: samplings from a long apprenticeship: novels which were imagined, written, re-written, rejected, abandoned, and supplanted:
(Grand Union Press, 1983)
Bones (TV series)
Bones is an American crime drama television series that premiered on the Fox Network on September 13, 2005. The show is based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode focusing on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent...
see Jack Hodgins (Bones)
Jack Hodgins (Bones)
Dr. Jack Stanley Hodgins IV, Ph.D., is a fictional character in the American television series, Bones. He is portrayed by T. J. Thyne. Jack is introduced to the series primarily as an entomologist/forensic entomologist, but also as a mineralogist/forensic mineralogist, a palynology/forensic...
Jack Hodgins (born October 3, 1938) 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...
novelist and short story writer.
Born in the Comox Valley
Comox Valley
The Comox Valley is a region on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada that includes the city of Courtenay, the town of Comox, the village of Cumberland, and the unincorporated settlements of Royston, Union Bay, Fanny Bay, Black Creek and Merville. The communities of Denman...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, he attended the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
, where he was encouraged by Earle Birney
Earle Birney
Earle Alfred Birney, OC, FRSC was a distinguished Canadian poet and novelist, who twice won the Governor General's Award, Canada's top literary honor, for his poetry.-Life:...
. He worked as a high school teacher of English in Nanaimo, British Columbia, before taking a position at the University of Victoria
University of Victoria
The University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...
in the Creative Writing Department.
Critically acclaimed, among his best received works is Broken Ground (1998), a historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
set after the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, for which he received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
The Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, established in 1985 as one of the BC Book Prizes, is awarded annually to the best work of fiction by a resident of British Columbia, Canada....
.
Novels
- The Invention of the World – 1977
- The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne – 1979 (winner of the Governor General's Award for English Language Fiction1979 Governor General's AwardsEach winner of the 1979 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts. The 1979 awards were the first in which a list of finalists was released a month before the presentation of the awards...
) - The Honorary Patron – 1987
- Innocent Cities – 1990
- The Macken Charm – 1995
- Broken Ground – 1998 (winner of the 1999 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize)
- Distance – 2003
- The Master of Happy Endings - 2010 (finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction PrizeEthel Wilson Fiction PrizeThe Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, established in 1985 as one of the BC Book Prizes, is awarded annually to the best work of fiction by a resident of British Columbia, Canada....
)
Short stories
- Spit Delaney's Island –1976 (winner of the Eaton's BC Book Award)
- "By The River"
- The Barclay Family Theatre – 1981
- Damage Done by the Storm – 2005
Children's literature
- Left Behind in Squabble Bay – 1988
where is the story "After the Season"
Non-fiction
- Over Forty in Broken Hill – 1992
- A Passion for Narrative: A Guide for Writing Fiction – 1994
Biography
Jack Hodgins grew up in Merville, a small town in the Comox Valley of British Columbia. He left home for Vancouver, where he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Education. Hodgins spent the next 18 years of his career teaching English in Nanaimo, back on Vancouver Island.In 1968, his first piece of literary work was accepted by a publication, and the exposure allowed him the chance to expand his work in print. With the publication of his first book of short stories, “Spit Delaney’s Island” (1976), and his first novel “The Invention of the World” (1977), Jack Hodgins was well on his way to becoming a recognized name in Canadian literature.
He began receiving short-term teaching positions at universities throughout Canada, including Simon Fraser University and the University of Ottawa. (http://www.nwpassages.com/bios/hodgins.asp). His passion to educate led him around the world- he lectured in countries such as Japan, Finland, Norway, Germany, Spain, and Australia. In 1983, he accepted a position as a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Victoria. He and his family settled themselves in Victoria and stayed through until the time of his retirement from teaching, in 2002.
Hodgins continues his life in Victoria today and occasionally gives lectures on writing and speaks at a workshop in Mallorca, Spain annually. Hodgins has received much recognition for his work including the Eaton's BC Book Award
Eaton's BC Book Award
The Eaton's BC Book Award was first presented in 1975 and last awarded in 1983. Prior to the establishment of the BC Book Prizes in 1985, Eaton’s BC Book Award was one of the British Columbia's top literary prizes.-History:...
for “Spit Delaney’s Island,” the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence
Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence
The Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence is administered by the BC Book Prizes and recognizes a writer who has contributed significantly to the development of literary excellence in British Columbia, as well as having written a substantial body of literary work throughout his or her...
in 2006, and the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, a play based on several short stories from his book “The Barclay Family Theatre” was made into an opera by composer Christopher Donnison and premiered on stage in Victoria, BC. His life has been commemorated in a National Film Board Film entitled Jack Hodgins' Island.
Literature and the Environment
- Hodgins' close relationship with the environment stems from his personal experiences within the temperate rainforests and seasides of British Columbia. Places like Comox Valley, Nanaimo, and Victoria, as well as his travels abroad, have influenced his writing and the contents of his books. His characters in “Innocent Cities” are based on actual residents of the city of Victoria in the late 1900s, as well as people he met on his travels to Australia. “The Invention of the World” is based on the legendary cult leader Brother Twelve and his followers from outside Nanaimo, BC. “The Macken Charm”, set in 1956, illustrates the Comox Valley with characters inspired by influential people in his life. He based the many settings in “Spit Delaney's Island" around places he has lived or previously travelled.
In an email interview with students from the University of Victoria, Hodgins elaborates on place affecting his writing, and uses “Macken Charm” as his example.
“In The Macken Charm the family gathers (after a family funeral) at the site of a burnt hotel owned by the family. This place exists still. My own memories go back to playing as a child in that hotel when it was no longer in use. I knew that my parents began their married life in that hotel—the old uncle who owned it asked them to move in and look after it and them. My mother learned to cook
on a stove big enough for a hotel dining room full of guests! All of this is in the novel, pretty well just as it happens, though the characters are fictitious replacements for the originals. The beach, the trees, the roads, the cars of 1956, the store, the funeral parlour, the bridge over the river in Courtenay, the glacier—they're all there. The story is fiction but the place is real.”
Hodgins, Jack. E-mail. 28 November, 2008.
Awards and honours
2009 Member of the Order of CanadaOrder of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
2006 Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence
Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence
The Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence is administered by the BC Book Prizes and recognizes a writer who has contributed significantly to the development of literary excellence in British Columbia, as well as having written a substantial body of literary work throughout his or her...
2006 Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award "for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia"
2004 Honorary D.Litt, University of Victoria
2004 Distance: short-listed for the inaugural City of Victoria book award
2004 Distance: long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin Award
2000 Broken Ground: the Torgi Talking Book of the Year
2000 Broken Ground: long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin Award
2000 Broken Ground: the Ethel Wilson Prize Prize for fiction in British Columbia
1999 Broken Ground: The Drummer General Award (Different Drummer Bookstore)
1999 Broken Ground: jury choice as "best novel of the year" in Quill and Quire
1999 Broken Ground: in Globe and Mail "top ten"
1999 Elected to the Royal Society of Canada
1998 Honorary D.Litt, Malaspina University-College
1996 "Finding Merville": (Comox Valley Record) first place in Neville Shanks Memorial Award for Historical Writing.
1995 Honorary D.Litt, University of British Columbia
1988 The Honorary Patron: short listed for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour
1988 The Honorary Patron: the Commonwealth Literature Prize (Canada-Caribbean region)
1986 The Canada-Australia prize
1979 The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne: The Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction
1978 The Invention of the World: shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award
1978 The Invention of the World: the Gibson's First Novel Award
1977 Spit Delaney's Island: short listed for the Governor General's Award
1977 Spit Delaney's Island: the Eaton's B.C. Book Award
1973 "After the Season": the President's Medal, University of Western Ontario
Periodicals
Short stories and articles have been published in several magazines in Canada, France, Australia, and the US, including:Northwest Review
Antigonish Review
Wascana Review
Descant (Texas)
Capilano Review
Prism: international
Paris Intercontinental
Saturday Night
Vancouver
Westerly
Story
Toronto Life
North American Review
Event
Canadian Fiction Magazine
Sound Heritage
Alphabet
Viva
Journal of Canadian Fiction
The Canadian Forum
Forum (Houston)
Island No.2
Meanjin
The Literary Half-yearly
Overland
Anthologies
Teaching Short Fiction, edited with Bruce Nesbitt: (ComCept Publishing)Voice and Vision, edited with W.H. New: (McClelland and Stewart)
The Frontier Experience: (Macmillan of Canada, 1975)
The West Coast Experience: (Macmillan of Canada, 1976)
BEGINNINGS: samplings from a long apprenticeship: novels which were imagined, written, re-written, rejected, abandoned, and supplanted:
(Grand Union Press, 1983)
External links
- Jack Hodgins's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
- http://www.jackhodgins.ca/ reference
- http://www.nwpassages.com/bios/hodgins.asp reference
- http://www.bcbookworld.com/terasen/jackhodgins.html reference