Esi Edugyan
Canadian novelist (born 1978)
Esi Edugyan (born 1978) is a Canadian novelist.[ 1] She has twice won the Giller Prize , for her novels Half-Blood Blues (2011) and Washington Black (2018).
Biography
Esi Edugyan was born and raised in Calgary , Alberta , to parents from Ghana .[ 1] She studied creative writing at the University of Victoria , where she was mentored by Jack Hodgins . She also earned a master's degree from Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars .[ 1] [ 2]
Her debut novel , The Second Life of Samuel Tyne , written at the age of 24,[ 3] was published in 2004 and was shortlisted for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award in 2005.[ 4]
Despite favourable reviews for her first novel, Edugyan had difficulty securing a publisher for her second fiction manuscript.[ 1] She spent some time as a writer-in-residence in Stuttgart , Germany. This period inspired her to drop her unsold manuscript and write another novel, Half-Blood Blues , about a young mixed-race jazz musician, Hieronymus Falk, who is part of a group in Berlin between the wars, made up of African Americans, a German Jew, and wealthy German. The Afro-German Hiero is abducted by the Nazis as a "Rhineland Bastard ". Several of his fellow musicians flee Germany for Paris with the outbreak of World War II . The Americans return to the United States, but they meet again in Europe years later.[ 1]
Published in 2011, Half-Blood Blues was shortlisted for that year's Man Booker Prize ,[ 5] Scotiabank Giller Prize ,[ 6] Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize ,[ 7] and Governor General's Award for English-language fiction .[ 8] Edugyan was one of two Canadian writers, alongside Patrick deWitt , to make all four award lists in 2011.[ 6] [ 9]
On November 8, 2011, she won the Giller Prize for Half-Blood Blues .[ 10] [ 11] Again alongside deWitt's work, Half-Blood Blues was shortlisted for the 2012 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.[ 12] In September 2012, in a ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio , Edugyan received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in fiction for Half-Blood Blues , chosen by a jury composed of Rita Dove , Henry Louis Gates Jr. , Joyce Carol Oates , Steven Pinker , and Simon Schama .[ 13] [ 14]
In March 2014, Edugyan's first work of non-fiction, Dreaming of Elsewhere: Observations on Home , was published by the University of Alberta Press [ 15] in the Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture Series.[ 16] [ 17] In 2016, she was writer-in-residence at Athabasca University in Edmonton , Alberta.[ 18]
Her third novel, Washington Black , was published in September 2018.[ 19] It won the Giller Prize in November 2018,[ 20] making Edugyan only the third writer, after M. G. Vassanji and Alice Munro , ever to win the award twice.[ 21] [ 22] Washington Black was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize,[ 23] the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize,[ 24] the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction ,[ 25] and the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award .[ 26] The novel was selected for the 2022 edition of Canada Reads , where it was defended by Mark Tewksbury .[ 27]
She features in Margaret Busby 's 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa with the contribution "The Wrong Door: Some Meditations on Solitude and Writing".[ 28]
In 2021, Edugyan presented six lectures as part of CBC Radio 's Massey Lectures series.[ 29] The lectures were published in a book, Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling .
Edugyan was selected as chair for the 2023 Booker Prize jury, alongside fellow judges Robert Webb , Mary Jean Chan , Adjoa Andoh and James Shapiro .[ 30] [ 31]
Personal life
Edugyan lives in Victoria, British Columbia , and is married to novelist and poet Steven Price , whom she met when they were both students at the University of Victoria.[ 1] Their first child was born in August 2011,[ 32] their second at the end of 2014.[ 33]
Works
References
^ a b c d e f Donna Bailey Nurse, "Writing the blues" Archived 2014-02-27 at the Wayback Machine . Quill & Quire , July 2011.
^ John Threlfall, "Writing grad Esi Edugyan makes shortlist trifecta" , Fine Arts, University of Victoria, October 4, 2011.
^ Mike Devlin, "Colwood author Esi Edugyan back with new novel" , Times Colonist , September 8, 2018.
^ "Esi Edugyan: History, Culture, and Belonging" , The Douglas Review , May 1, 2017.
^ "Two Canadians Shortlisted for Man Booker" . The Mark . September 6, 2011. Archived from the original on March 27, 2012.
^ a b John Barber, "Generation Giller: New young writers dominate Canada's richest fiction prize" , The Globe and Mail , October 4, 2011.
^ John Barber, "Booker nominees Edugyan, deWitt make shortlist for Writers' Trust prize" . The Globe and Mail , September 28, 2011.
^ Greg Quill, "Edugyan, deWitt contemplate 'an embarrassment of riches' " , Toronto Star , October 11, 2011. Archived January 4, 2013, at archive.today .
^ John Barber, "Edugyan and deWitt add GGs to long list of nominations" . The Globe and Mail , October 11, 2011.
^ "Esi Edugyan wins the Giller Prize" . CBC News , November 8, 2011.
^ John Barber, "Author Esi Edugyan takes home the Giller Prize" , The Globe and Mail , November 8, 2011.
^ "Edugyan and deWitt face off in yet another literary contest" . The Globe and Mail , April 4, 2012.
^ "The 2012 Anisfield-Wolf Award Winners Announced" , Cleveland Public Library , April 25, 2012. Archived .
^ "Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize Goes to Arnold Rampersad" , Publishers Weekly , July 12, 2012,
^ Julie Baldassi, "Spring preview 2014: non-fiction, part 2" , Quill & Quire , January 18, 2014.
^ Dreaming of Elsewhere at The University of Alberta Press.
^ Madeleine Thein, "Where Do We Belong?" , Literary Review of Canada , July–August 2014.
^ "Esi Edugyan" , English-Canadian Writers, Athabasca University.
^ "Read an excerpt and see the cover of Esi Edugyan's upcoming novel, Washington Black" . CBC Books , April 26, 2018.
^ Adina Bresge, "Esi Edugyan wins Scotiabank Giller Prize for 'Washington Black'" , CTV News , November 19, 2018.
^ Cliff Lee, "Esi Edugyan wins her second Giller Prize, this time for Washington Black" . The Globe and Mail , November 19, 2018.
^ Adina Bresge, "Esi Edugyan wins second $100K Giller Prize for Washington Black" . Toronto Star , November 19, 2018.
^ "Washington Black | The Man Booker Prizes" . themanbookerprize.com . Retrieved September 25, 2018 .
^ Ryan Porter, "Edugyan, Hage among Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction finalists" , Quill & Quire , September 26, 2018.
^ "ALA Unveils 2019 Carnegie Medals Shortlist" . American Libraries . October 24, 2018. Retrieved November 20, 2018 .
^ Chukwuebuka Ibeh, "Esi Edugyan Shortlisted for €100,000 International Dublin Literary Award" , Brittle Paper , October 9, 2020.
^ "Meet the Canada Reads 2022 contenders" . CBC Books , January 26, 2022.
^ " 'It is a loss of privacy that has the greatest ability to destroy an artist'—Esi Edugyan, excerpted from New Daughters of Africa" . The Johannesburg Review of Books , June 3, 2019.
^ "Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling; Esi Edugyan's CBC Massey Lectures" . January 24, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2024 .
^ Brown, Lauren (December 13, 2022). "Twice-shortlisted Edugyan announced as chair of judges for 2023 Booker Prize" . The Bookseller . Retrieved December 13, 2022 .
^ "Canadian writer Esi Edugyan to chair 2023 Booker Prize jury" . CBC Books . Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . December 13, 2022. Retrieved December 13, 2022 .
^ Marsha Lederman, "Esi Edugyan: A new baby, and an armful of literary-award nominations" , The Globe and Mail , October 7, 2011.
^ Adrian Chamberlain, "Victoria writer Steven Price scores international book deal" , Times Colonist , November 13, 2014.
External links
1990s 2000s
Michael Ondaatje , Anil's Ghost / David Adams Richards , Mercy among the Children (2000)
Richard B. Wright , Clara Callan (2001)
Austin Clarke , The Polished Hoe (2002)
M. G. Vassanji , The In-Between World of Vikram Lall (2003)
Alice Munro , Runaway (2004)
David Bergen , The Time in Between (2005)
Vincent Lam , Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures (2006)
Elizabeth Hay , Late Nights on Air (2007)
Joseph Boyden , Through Black Spruce (2008)
Linden MacIntyre , The Bishop's Man (2009)
2010s
Johanna Skibsrud , The Sentimentalists (2010)
Esi Edugyan , Half-Blood Blues (2011)
Will Ferguson , 419 (2012)
Lynn Coady , Hellgoing (2013)
Sean Michaels , Us Conductors (2014)
André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (2015)
Madeleine Thien , Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016)
Michael Redhill , Bellevue Square (2017)
Esi Edugyan , Washington Black (2018)
Ian Williams , Reproduction (2019)
2020s
International National People Other