David Chariandy | |
---|---|
Born | David John Chariandy 1969 (age 53–54) Scarborough, Ontario, Canada |
Occupation | Novelist and academic |
Alma mater | |
Period | 2000s–present |
Notable works | Soucouyant (2007); Brother (2017) |
David John Chariandy (born in 1969 in Scarborough, Ontario) [1] is a Canadian writer and academic, presently working as a professor of English literature at Simon Fraser University. [1] His 2017 novel Brother won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, [2] and Toronto Book Award. [3]
Chariandy's parents immigrated to Canada from Trinidad in the 1960s. [4] [5] He was born in 1969 in Scarborough, Ontario. [1] His father is from South Asian descent, whereas his mother is African. They were both working-class immigrants. His surname represents his Tamil and South Indian origins from his father's side. [6]
Chariandy has a Master of Arts from Carleton University and a PhD from York University. [7] He lives in Vancouver and teaches in the department of English at Simon Fraser University. [7]
In his work, he explores the truest meaning of origins and birthplace for immigrants and their children growing up in another part of the world but still belonging to another.
Chariandy's family includes his wife and two children: a son and a daughter.
Chariandy's novels are set in Scarborough, an eastern region of Toronto, Ontario. This area is known for its immigrant heavy population and has been sometime stigmatized by a reputation for crime, although statistics do not support this perception. [8]
Chariandy told the Toronto Star :
If I’m honest, I always wanted to write a story that evoked the complexities of growing up young and Black in Scarborough...Throughout my entire life growing up in Scarborough and returning to it even as a young adult, I always felt so discomforted by the negative stories of Scarborough that would circulate in the newspapers and tabloids and sometimes by word of mouth, among people who really didn’t know Scarborough that well. [9]
His novels offer up a story of Scarborough that admit "challenges, but tell that bigger story of life and vitality that you don’t always see in headlines." [9]
His non-fiction book I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter to My Daughter was inspired by both a racist incident he experienced while at a Vancouver restaurant with his three-year-old daughter and then, years later, by the Quebec City mosque shooting in 2017. [5]
Chariandy's novel Brother, the 2017 winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize was optioned for film, [10] and went into production in fall 2021 under the direction of Clement Virgo. [11] The film, Brother , premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, [12] and won 12 Canadian Screen Awards at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023.
In 2019, alongside Danielle McLaughlin, Chariandy won the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, [13] [14] [15] a "global English-language awards that call attention to literary achievement and provide writers with the opportunity to focus on their work independent of financial concerns." [16] The award provided him $165,000 to support his writing. [16]
Year | Title | Award | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2007 | Soucouyant | Books in Canada First Novel Award | Shortlist | [17] |
Governor General's Award for English-language fiction | Shortlist | [7] [18] | ||
Scotiabank Giller Prize | Longlist | [19] | ||
2008 | Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize | Shortlist | [20] [21] | |
Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book of Canada and the Caribbean | Shortlist | [22] | ||
International Dublin Literary Award | Longlist | [23] [24] | ||
ReLit Award for Fiction | Shortlist | |||
Toronto Book Award | Shortlist | [25] | ||
2017 | Brother | Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize | Winner | [26] [27] [2] |
Scotiabank Giller Prize | Longlist | [2] [28] | ||
2018 | Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize | Winner | [2] [29] [30] | |
Not The Booker Award | Longlist | [31] | ||
Toronto Book Award | Winner | [3] [32] [33] | ||
2019 | Aspen Words Literary Prize | Shortlist | [34] [35] | |
CBC Canada Reads | Longlist | [2] | ||
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction | Nominee | |||
Orwell Prize for Political Fiction | Longlist | [36] [37] | ||
PEN/Open Book | Longlist | [38] |
The film and television rights for Brother were purchased by Conquering Lion Pictures and Hawkeye Pictures. [2] Clement Virgo adapted the script and directed the film, [2] which stars Lamar Johnson, Aaron Pierre, Kiana Madeira, and Marsha Stephanie Blake. [39] It premiered in 2022 at the Toronto International Film Festival. [39]
Brother went on to win a record-breaking twelve awards at the Canadian Screen Awards. [40]
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 Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, colloquially called the Vicky, is given annually at the Writers' Trust Awards to a writer or illustrator whose body of work has been "inspirational to Canadian youth". It is a top honour for Canadian children's writers and Canadian children's book illustrators.
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The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author of the book by The Guardian newspaper, which established it in 1965 and inaugurated it in 1967. It was a lifetime award in that previous winners were not eligible. At least from 2000 the prize was £1,500. The prize was apparently discontinued after 2016, though no formal announcement appears to have been made.
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The Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, established in 1986, is awarded annually to the best collection of poetry by a resident of British Columbia, Canada.
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Clement Virgo is a Canadian film and television writer, producer and director who runs the production company, Conquering Lion Pictures, with producer Damon D'Oliveira. Virgo is best known for co-writing and directing an adaptation of the novel by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (2015), a six-part miniseries that aired on CBC Television in Canada and BET in the United States.
The Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award is a Canadian literary award, presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an established Canadian author to honour their body of work.
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The ReLit Awards are Canadian literary prizes awarded annually to book-length works in the novel, short-story and poetry categories. Founded in 2000 by Newfoundland filmmaker and author Kenneth J. Harvey.
Conquering Lion Pictures (CLP) is an independent Canadian film production company founded by Clement Virgo and Damon D'Oliveira. Virgo and D'Oliveira met in 1991 while studying at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), and formed CLP while working on Rude, their first feature film at the CFC.
The Latner Griffin Writers' Trust Poetry Prize is a Canadian literary award. Presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada and the Latner Family Foundation, the award presents $60,000 annually to a Canadian poet who has published at least three collections, to honour their body of work.
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Scarborough is the debut novel by Canadian writer Catherine Hernandez, published in 2017. Set in the Toronto district of Scarborough, the novel centres on the coming-of-age of three young children living in the low-income Galloway Road neighbourhood — Bing, a boy struggling with his sexual identity; Laura, a girl who longs for stability as she is continually being shuffled back and forth between her mother's and her father's separate homes; and Sylvie, a girl whose family is living in a homeless shelter — as well as Hina, a community literacy worker who strives to be an oasis of support and guidance for underprivileged children in her community.
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