Archie Crail

Last updated
Archie Crail
Born1948
Paarl, South Africa
Occupationjournalist, short story writer, playwright
NationalitySouth African-Canadian
Period1990s
Notable worksThe Bonus Deal

Archie Crail (born 1944 in Paarl, South Africa) [1] is a South African-Canadian writer. He was a shortlisted nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 1992 Governor General's Awards for his short story collection The Bonus Deal. [2]

Contents

Background

A coloured South African of Khoisan descent, [3] Crail was born and raised in Paarl. [1] Educated at the University of South Africa, [4] he was an anti-apartheid activist with the African National Congress, [1] and studied theology under Desmond Tutu. [5] He later spent several years living in South-West Africa, continuing his political activism with SWAPO, [5] and briefly moved to Botswana [1] before moving to Canada in 1980. [3]

Crail and his family settled in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1980. [4] Crail took classes at the University of Regina, [4] including studying creative writing under Ven Begamudré. [5]

Writing

His first work, a theatrical play titled Exile, won the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild literary competition in 1989 [6] and was produced by Saskatoon's 25th Street Theatre in 1990. [7] A touring production of Exile was later mounted in South Africa. [4]

The Bonus Deal was published by Coteau Books in 1992. [8] Several of the short stories in The Bonus Deal were also dramatized for CBC Radio. [4]

In 1991, after the South African government lifted its ban on exiled African National Congress members returning to South Africa, Crail attended the organization's conference in Durban. [4]

Works

Related Research Articles

Sandra Louise Birdsell, CM is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Métis and Mennonite heritage from Morris, Manitoba.

Bonnie Burnard was a Canadian short story writer and novelist, best known for her 1999 novel, A Good House, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Sharon Butala is a Canadian writer and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorna Crozier</span> Canadian poet

Lorna Crozier, OC is a Canadian poet, author, and former chair of the Writing Department at the University of Victoria. She is the author of twenty-five books and was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2011 as one of Canada's pre-eminent poets and for her teaching. Crozier is credited as Lorna Uher on some of her earlier works.

Myrna Kostash is a Canadian writer and journalist. She has published several non-fiction books and written for many Canadian magazines including Chatelaine. Of Ukrainian descent, she was born in Edmonton, Alberta and educated at the University of Alberta, the University of Washington, and the University of Toronto. She resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

Donald Grant Devine, SOM is a Canadian politician who served as the 11th premier of Saskatchewan from 1982 to 1991. He was the last Saskatchewan premier from the Progressive Conservative Party.

Guy Clarence Vanderhaeghe is a Canadian novelist and short story writer, best known for his Western novel trilogy, The Englishman's Boy, The Last Crossing, and A Good Man set in the 19th-century American and Canadian West. Vanderhaeghe has won three Governor General's Awards for his fiction, one for his short story collection Man Descending in 1982, the second for his novel The Englishman's Boy in 1996, and the third for his short story collection Daddy Lenin and Other Stories in 2015.

The Governor General's Award for English-language fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a fiction book written in English. It is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, seven each for creators of English- and French-language books. The awards was created by the Canadian Authors Association in partnership with Lord Tweedsmuir in 1936. In 1959, the award became part of the Governor General's Awards program at the Canada Council for the Arts in 1959. The age requirement is 18 and up.

This is a list of recipients and nominees of the Governor General's Awards award for English-language poetry. The award was created in 1981 when the Governor General's Award for English language poetry or drama was divided.

Marjorie May "Maggie" Siggins is a Canadian journalist and writer. She was a recipient of the 1992 Governor General's Award for Literary Merit for her non-fiction work Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm. She was also the recipient of the 1986 Arthur Ellis Award for "Best true crime book" for her work A Canadian Tragedy, about the involvement of former Saskatchewan politician Colin Thatcher in the murder of his wife JoAnn Wilson. The book was later adapted into the television miniseries Love and Hate: The Story of Colin and JoAnn Thatcher.

Dianne Warren is a Canadian novelist, dramatist and short story writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of Saskatchewan</span> Patterns of human activity in a province of Canada

Culture of Saskatchewan views the patterns of human activity in the central prairie province of Canada examining the way people live in the geography, climate, and social context of Saskatchewan.

Ross King is a Canadian novelist and non-fiction writer. He began his career by writing two works of historical fiction in the 1990s, later turning to non-fiction, and has since written several critically acclaimed and best-selling historical works.

Allan Casey is a Canadian writer, whose book Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada, won the Governor General's Award for English non-fiction in 2010. The book was also a shortlisted nominee for the Edna Staebler Award.

Don Dickinson is a Canadian writer and actor, born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan on December 27, 1947. He was a shortlisted nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 1991 Governor General's Awards for his short story collection Blue Husbands, and for the 1993 Books in Canada First Novel Award for his novel The Crew. Blue Husbands was also a winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 1992.

Trevor Herriot, is a Canadian naturalist and writer; he is best known as a bird expert.

Geoffrey Ursell was a Canadian writer, who won the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 1985 for his novel Perdue, or How the West Was Lost.

Terrence Frederick "Terry" Rigelhof is a Canadian writer and academic. He is best known for A Blue Boy in a Black Dress, his memoir of his time studying at a Roman Catholic seminary school prior to abandoning the priesthood; the book was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 1996 Governor General's Awards, and won the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction at the Quebec Writers' Federation Awards.

Layne Coleman is a Canadian actor, playwright and theatre director, most noted as a former artistic director of Theatre Passe Muraille. Originally from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, he first became prominent as a cofounder and artistic director of the 25th Street Theatre in Saskatoon in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcel Sabourin</span> Canadian actor and writer from Quebec (born 1935)

Marcel Sabourin, OC is a Canadian actor and writer from Quebec. He is most noted for his role as Abel Gagné, the central character in Jean Pierre Lefebvre's trilogy of Don't Let It Kill You , The Old Country Where Rimbaud Died and Now or Never , and his performance as Professor Mandibule in the children's television series Les Croquignoles and La ribouldingue.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Can't feel safe, even in Saskatchewan". Windsor Star , February 3, 1995.
  2. ↑ "Ondaatje leads top literary nominees". Financial Post , November 7, 1992.
  3. 1 2 "The essence of politics; Relocated in Regina, South African writer explores his roots". Edmonton Journal , June 21, 1992.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Heather Hodgson, Saskatchewan Writers: Lives Past and Present. University of Regina Press, 2004. ISBN   978-0889771635. p. 63.
  5. 1 2 3 "A spinner of complex but sturdy prose". The Globe and Mail , November 28, 1992.
  6. ↑ "Writers pick up $4,800 in prizes". The Globe and Mail , June 7, 1989.
  7. ↑ 25th Street Theatre Centre at The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  8. ↑ Claire Rothman, "South African emigre shows lives at breaking point". The Gazette , December 5, 1992.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.