Alix Ohlin | |
|---|---|
 Ohlin in 2019 | |
| Born | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Period | 2000s-present |
| Notable works | Inside |
| Website | |
| alixohlinauthor | |
Alix Ohlin is a Canadian novelist and short-story writer. She was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is a recipient of the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Literature for her short story collection, We Want What We Want. [1]
On January 1, 2018, Ohlin became the chair of the University of British Columbia's creative writing program. In addition to her appointment as chair, Ohlin also joined the program as an associate professor where she specializes in teaching fiction, screenwriting, and environmental writing, as well as serving as a mentor to younger writers. [2] She led the transition of the Creative Writing Program into the School of Creative Writing, and the establishment of an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. [3] In July 2022, Ohlin completed her term as Director, and now continues to teach and write within the School of Creative Writing. [3]
Previously, Ohlin taught at McGill University as the Mordecai Richler Writer-in-Residence for 2016–17. Ohlin was also an English professor at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, a faculty member in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. [4] in North Carolina, and has taught writing at the New York State Summer Writers Institute. She taught and worked at Portsmouth Abbey School, in Rhode Island, as writer-in-residence from the fall of 2002 through the spring of 2004.
Ohlin graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an English and American Literature and Language degree in 1992 and earned a master's in fine arts degree in writing from the Michener Center for Writers, University of Texas at Austin in 2001. [2]
Ohlin published her debut novel The Missing Person in 2006, and followed up with the short story collection Babylon and Other Stories in 2007. Her second novel, Inside, and her second short story collection, Signs and Wonders, were both published on the same day in 2012. [5] Inside was a shortlisted nominee for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. [6]
Her newest novel, Dual Citizens, was published in 2019. [7] It was shortlisted for the 2019 Giller Prize, [8] the 2019 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, [9] and the 2020 ReLit Award for fiction. [10]
Her short story collection We Want What We Want received the Lambda Literary Award for bisexual fiction, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, [11] and the 2022 ReLit Award for short fiction. [12]
 |
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quarantine | 2017 | Ohlin, Alix (30 January 2017). "Quarantine". The New Yorker. 92 (47): 56–63. | ||
| Year | Title | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Inside | Giller Prize | Shortlist | [13] [14] [15] |
| Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize | Shortlist | [16] | ||
| 2019 | Dual Citizens | Giller Prize | Shortlist | [17] |
| Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize | Shortlist | [18] | ||
| 2021 | We Want What We Want | Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize | Shortlist | [19] |
| 2022 | Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction | Winner | [20] |
The Giller Prize is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries. The prize was established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife Doris Giller, a former literary editor at the Toronto Star, and is awarded in November of each year along with a cash reward with the winner being presented by the previous year's winning author.
The Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, formerly known as the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, is a Canadian literary award presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada after an annual juried competition of works submitted by publishers. Alongside the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction and the Giller Prize, it is considered one of the three main awards for Canadian fiction in English. Its eligibility criteria allow for it to garland collections of short stories as well as novels; works that were originally written and published in French are also eligible for the award when they appear in English translation.
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