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]
Edugyan was selected as chair for the 2023
Booker Prize jury, alongside fellow judges
Robert Webb ,
Mary Jean Chan ,
Adjoa Andoh and
James Shapiro .
[29]
[30]
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,
[31] their second at the end of 2014.
[32]
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.
^ 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