Angie Abdou | |
|---|---|
 Angie Abdou (2011) | |
| Born | 11 May 1969 (age 55) Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Education |
|
| Genre | Literary fiction, sport fiction, satire, creative nonfiction, memoir |
| Relatives | Justin Abdou (brother) |
Angela "Angie" Abdou (born 11 May 1969) [1] is a Canadian writer of fiction and nonfiction.
Abdou was born 11 May 1969, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, [1] where she spent her early childhood. [2] Justin Abdou is her only sibling. She received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Regina (Saskatchewan) in 1991, [3] a Master of Arts in English from the University of Western Ontario in 1992, and a PhD in English in the Field of Creative Writing and Canadian Literature from the University of Calgary in 2009. She currently lives in Fernie, British Columbia, Canada with her children Oliver and Katherine and is Professor of Creative Writing at Athabasca University (Canada's only open university).
Abdou's first collection of fiction, Anything Boys Can Do, was published in 2006 by Thistledown Press. [4] B.C. BookWorld praised the collection as "an extraordinary literary debut." [5] The book deals with contemporary heterosexual relationships and addresses topics such as infidelity and miscommunication between the sexes. In The Victoria Times Colonist, Brownen Welch claims that "Abdou confirms for us that the female frame is capable of holding within itself a multiplicity of complications and contradictions." [6] Welch praises Abdou for finding a nonjudgemental language with which to discuss female sexuality.
Abdou's first novel, The Bone Cage, was published in 2007 by NeWest Press. The novel follows the lives of two Olympic athletes near the end of their careers and explores the connection between body and identity. It describes elite athletics with much detail. A review in VUE Weekly (Edmonton, Alberta) states: "Angie Abdou's debut novel, The Bone Cage, finds its heart ... daring to question what happens to athletes who put everything else on hold for a chance at the Olympics ... What lurks in the shadows of elite athletics is what makes Abdou's follow up to Anything Boys Can Do, a book of short stories, so compelling". [7] The Bone Cage's themes, though, are also relevant outside the world of athletics. In Canadian Literature a reviewer writes: "The Bone Cage extends past sport, exploring the tentative relationship between people and their bodies. Are we simply prisoners of our own "bone cage," predestined by our body, or can we overcome the limits of our body? Do we even want to overcome our body, or is it simply inseparable from ourselves? The Bone Cage's questioning of an inherent self-body dichotomy reaches out universally, involving not only sport, but also illness and death. Ultimately, because Abdou does not offer concrete answers for these questions, she shows that though the specific relationship between body and self is individualized, our struggle to reconcile them is universal." [8] The Bone Cage was a finalist for CBC's 2011 Canada Reads and was defended by ex-NHL player Georges Laraque. Shortly after the 2011 Canada Reads debates, The Bone Cage was selected as The MacEwan Book of the Year for the 2011–2012 academic year. [9] Past recipients of this honour include Margaret Atwood, Yann Martel, Annabel Lyon, Thomas Wharton, and David Adams Richards.
The Bone Cage was also selected by Kootenay Library Foundation as the feature book for its first annual "One Book, One Kootenay" celebration (launched 8 September 2009). [10]
Abdou's second novel, The Canterbury Trail, originated as a dissertation project at The University of Calgary. It was released in February 2011 by Brindle and Glass Press (Victoria, BC). It was a finalist for the 2011 Banff Mountain Book Festival Book of the Year Award in the Literature category. The Canterbury Trail also won a 2012 IPPY (Independent Publishing Award, Gold Medal for Canada West).
Abdou's third novel is Between. Published by Arsenal Pulp Press in August 2014, it explores the lives of two women: Ligaya (a nanny from the Philippines) and Vero (an overextended working mother in North America). The Library Journal selected as a Top Indie pick for Spring 2015. [11] It was named a best of 2014 book by Vancouver Sun, PRISM Magazine, and 49th Shelf.
Abdou's fifth book of fiction (In Case I Go, Arsenal Pulp Press) was published in the fall of 2017. Andrew Pyper, author of The Only Child and The Demononlogist, says: "The past reaches up from the soil of In Case I Go to grab hold of its characters and readers alike, refusing to let go. Angie Abdou has written a grown-up work of fantasy, transporting as it is grounded and real." It was a finalist for the Banff Mountain Book award in the fiction and poetry category. [12] Chatelaine magazine named it one of 2017's most riveting mysteries. [13]
Home Ice: Reflections of a Reluctant Hockey Mom is Angie's first nonfiction book. It hit the Canadian bestseller list the week of its release. [14]
In a starred review, Booklist claims: "The author brings a novelist's eye to the story, telling it in first-person present tense; with its sharp characterizations and dialogue in place of autobiographical exposition, the book is a first-rate memoir and a fine example of narrative nonfiction. It's also a must-read for parents with youngsters who play organized sports." [15] In The Nordic Sports Forum, Swedish scholar Tobias Stark calls Home Ice "one of the most memorable hockey books ever written." [16]
Abdou teaches courses in creative writing at College of the Rockies, [17] Sage Hill Teen Writing Experience, [18] Write in the Kootenays and The Fernie Writers' Conference. [19] She is also an active member of the Sport Literature Association.
Fernie is a city in the Elk Valley area of the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia, Canada, located on BC Highway 3 on the western approaches to the Crowsnest Pass through the Rocky Mountains. Founded in 1898 and incorporated as the City of Fernie in July 1904, the municipality has a population of over 5,000 with an additional 2,000 outside city limits in communities under the jurisdiction of the Regional District of East Kootenay. A substantial seasonal population swells the city during the winter months.
Brian Brett was a Canadian poet, journalist, editor and novelist. Brett wrote and published extensively, starting in the late 1960s, and he worked as an editor for several publishing firms, including the Governor-General's Award-winning Blackfish Press. He also wrote a three-part memoir of his life in British Columbia.
Thomas King is an American-born Canadian writer and broadcast presenter who most often writes about First Nations.
Sparwood is a district municipality in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the second-largest community on the Elk River.
Steven Heighton was a Canadian fiction writer, poet, and singer-songwriter. He is the author of eighteen books, including three short story collections, four novels, and seven poetry collections. His last work was Selected Poems 1983-2020 and an album, The Devil's Share.
Lisa Robertson is a Canadian poet, essayist and translator. She lives in France.
Tim Wynne-Jones, is an English–Canadian author of children's literature, including picture books and novels for children and young adults, novels for adults, radio dramas, songs for the CBC/Jim Henson production Fraggle Rock, as well as a children's musical and an opera libretto.
Billie Livingston is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Livingston grew up in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia. She lives in Vancouver.
Madeleine Thien is a Canadian short story writer and novelist. The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature has considered her work as reflecting the increasingly trans-cultural nature of Canadian literature, exploring art, expression and politics inside Cambodia and China, as well as within diasporic East Asian communities. Thien's critically acclaimed novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, won the 2016 Governor General's Award for English-language fiction, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards for Fiction. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, and the 2017 Rathbones Folio Prize. Her books have been translated into more than 25 languages.
Stephen Patrick Glanvill Henighan is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, journalist, translator and academic.
Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, focusing primarily on underrepresented genres such as underground literature, LGBT literature, multiracial literature, graphic novels, visual arts, progressive and activist non-fiction and works in translation, and is noted for founding the annual Three-Day Novel Contest.
Rabindranath Maharaj is a Trinidadian-Canadian novelist, short story writer, and a founding editor of the Canadian literary journal Lichen. His novel The Amazing Absorbing Boy won the 2010 Trillium Book Award and the 2011 Toronto Book Award, and several of his books have been shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award.
The Fernie Swastikas were a women's hockey team that was formed in 1922 in Fernie, British Columbia. Their uniform used as a symbol the swastika, which before World War II was a common religious symbol, and especially a sun sign. In 1923, the Swastikas won the Alpine Cup at the Banff Winter Carnival women's ice hockey championship. There were two other teams called the Swastikas, one in Edmonton, Alberta, and another the Windsor Swastikas of Windsor, Nova Scotia.
Saleema Nawaz is a Canadian author whose works of short fiction have been published in literary journals such as Prairie Fire, PRISM International, Grain, The Dalhousie Review, and The New Quarterly. Nawaz was born in Ottawa, Ontario and later moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba in order to study English at the University of Manitoba, where she received her M.A. with a creative writing thesis. Her first complete collection of short fiction, entitled Mother Superior, was published by Freehand Books in 2008. Nawaz completed her first novel, Bone and Bread, published by Anansi Press in 2013, while residing in Montreal, Quebec.
Joan Givner is an essayist, biographer, and novelist, known for her biographies of women, short stories, and the Ellen Fremendon series of novels for younger readers that was finalist for the Silver Birch Awards, the 2006 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award for Ellen Fremedon, and the Diamond Willow Awards.
The Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an emerging Canadian writer who is part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer community. Originally presented as a general career achievement award for emerging writers that considered their overall body of work, since 2022 it has been presented to honor debut books.
Alix Hawley is a Canadian novelist and short-story writer. Her novel, All True Not a Lie In It, won the amazon.ca First Novel Award in 2015.
Tracey Lindberg is a writer, scholar, lawyer and Indigenous Rights activist from the Kelly Lake Cree Nation in British Columbia. She is Cree-Métis and a member of the As'in'i'wa'chi Ni'yaw Nation Rocky Mountain Cree.
Canisia Lubrin is a writer, critic, professor, poet and editor. Originally from St. Lucia, Lubrin now lives in Whitby, Ontario, Canada.
Cecelia Frey is a Canadian poet, novelist, and short story writer. Her works have appeared in literary magazines and in numerous anthologies, and broadcast on CBC Radio as well as produced by the Women's Television Network. She was the 2018 recipient of the Golden Pen Lifetime Achievement Award.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
