What is In the Land of Long Fingernails about?
In this book, Wilkins takes the reader back to the summer of ’69 when he worked as a gravedigger in a Toronto cemetery. Wilkins provides a unique and humorous look behind the scenes at this grim but vital job. In a recent CBC radio interview Wilkins mentioned he had pitched this book to his publisher several years ago, but it was felt the time wasn’t right for it. Following the popularity of the HBO series Six Feet Under, which had a similar theme, the climate was ripe for this book.
Has Charles Wilkins won any other literary awards?
According to the Writers’ Union Web site, Wilkins has won the following awards:
Listed, Globe and Mail 100 Best Books for Walk to New York, 2004.
Finalist, Writers' Trust of Canada Non-Fiction Prize for The Circus at the Edge of the Earth, 1998.
Listed, Globe and Mail 100 Best Books for The Circus at the Edge of the Earth, 1998.
Elizabeth Kouhi Award for a career contribution to the literature of northern Ontario.
Source: www.writersunion.ca
Who was Stephen Leacock?
Stephen Leacock is the first immortal in the ranks of Canadian humorists, and even in his lifetime his popularity and reputation were international. His work has become a touchstone for some types of comic writing, even though modern readers and critics are largely unfamiliar with the sheer extent of his publications. Some of his best work is still in print in McClelland and Stewart's New Canadian Library series. His principal form was the sketch, the joke given its own metaphorical extension, in which he could exercise his talents for incongruity, irony, and wordplay. He was also gifted in his ability to parody popular conventions in literature, entertainment, and behavior. He was an accomplished storyteller, and his work often sounds as good as it looks. Still, no analysis of his humor has denied its most fundamental and generous effect: the ability to create laughter.
Source: Canadian Writers, 1890-1920. Ed. William H. New. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 92. Detroit: Gale Research, 1990. From Literature Resource Center in the Virtual Collection.
What is the history of the Leacock Medal?
Close friends, colleagues and supporters of Stephen Leacock were the original members of the Leacock Associates (originally the Stephen Leacock Memorial Committee) when it was formed in 1946 under the guidance of Packet Editor, C. H. Hale. Membership was Orillia-based, but quickly spread through North America and England. The Association had three immediate objectives: to set up a collection in the Orillia Public Library of books, letters and personal items relating to the life and works of Stephen Leacock; to commission a bronze bust of Leacock by Elizabeth Wyn Wood, a famous Canadian sculptor and native of Orillia; and most notably to establish a memorial Medal to be awarded annually for the best book of humour written in the previous year by a Canadian. Previous winners include Stuart McLean, Arthur Black, Roch Carrier, Paul Quarrington, Will Ferguson and W.O. Mitchell.
Source: www.leacock.ca
Joanna Aegard, Head of Virtual Library Services
No comments:
Post a Comment