Joseph Boyden named Writer in Residence

September 02, 2010

Joseph Boyden has been named Athabasca University's first writer-in-residence. The appointment is effective from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011, and is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Mr. Boyden is a novelist and short story writer whose works include his debut novel Three Day Road, which earned a nomination for the 2005 Governor General's Literary Award and Through Black Spruce, the 2008 winner of Canada's prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize.

The focus of the writer-in-residence program is to allow creative time for the writer while enabling mentoring opportunities for emerging and established writers. Mr. Boyden will be working primarily with students from AU's Centre for Language and Literature, but will be available to all AU faculty and students. He intends to spend his residency researching and writing a historical novel, which will also lay the groundwork for the third book in the Three Day Road series.

"The residency will be of great benefit to me in that it will afford me the ability to focus on my own writing while working in depth with younger writers," says Mr. Boyden. "Having taught creative writing for fifteen years, I believe that there are so many vital pieces of knowledge a writer in his mid-career can share with hungry young artists. I'm passionate about my own work and think that it's absolutely vital to pass on this passion to others. As for the community, I hope to give readings and lectures, as well as making myself as available as possible to anyone who might be interested in the power of the written word."

Mr. Boyden, who grew up in Willowdale, Ontario, is of Irish, Scottish and Metis heritage. He studied creative writing at York University and the University of New Orleans. He divides his time between northern Ontario and his home in New Orleans.

For more information, contact:

http://www2.athabascau.ca/cll/writer-in-residence/

Tara Friesen
Manager, Alumni Relations & Philanthropy
Phone: 403.294.7319
Cell: 403.651.1309
Email: tfriesen@athabascau.ca

 

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Updated August 21, 2012