Michael Christie (writer)

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Michael Christie
Michael Christie - Eden Mills Writers Festival - 2015 (DanH-6462).jpg
Christie at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival in 2015
Born Thunder Bay, Ontario
OccupationWriter
NationalityCanadian
Period2010s-present
Notable worksIf I Fall, If I Die
The Beggar's Garden
Spouse Cedar Bowers
Website
michaelchristie.net

Michael Christie is a Canadian writer, whose debut story collection The Beggar's Garden was a longlisted nominee for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize [1] and a shortlisted nominee for the 2011 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. [2]

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Christie later moved to Vancouver, British Columbia to pursue professional skateboarding, and studied psychology at Simon Fraser University. He subsequently worked for several years in social services before returning to the University of British Columbia's creative writing program in 2008. He published The Beggar's Garden in early 2011.

The Beggar's Garden won the 2011 City of Vancouver Book Award. [3]

His debut novel, If I Fall, If I Die, a coming-of-age-story about the son of a reclusive agoraphobic filmmaker who leaves home for the first time to search for a lost boy, was published early 2015 in the US by Hogarth, and in Canada by McClelland & Stewart. [4] The novel was longlisted for the 2015 Giller Prize. [5]

His second novel, Greenwood, was published in 2019 and was longlisted for the 2019 Giller Prize. [6] Greenwood was also shortlisted for the Forest of Reading's Evergreen Award, [7] the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, [8] and the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. [9] In 2020, the novel won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel. [10] Greenwood was selected for the 2023 edition of Canada Reads , where it was championed by Keegan Connor Tracy. [11]

He is married to writer Cedar Bowers. [12]

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References

  1. "Michael Ondaatje and Guy Vanderhaeghe among writers on Giller Prize longlist" Archived 2011-09-07 at the Wayback Machine . National Post , September 6, 2011.
  2. "Booker nominees Edugyan, deWitt make shortlist for Writers' Trust prize". The Globe and Mail , September 28, 2011.
  3. "Book of short stories set in Downtown Eastside wins Vancouver Book Award". The Globe and Mail , October 18, 2011.
  4. "The 50 most anticipated books of 2015 (the first half, anyway)". The Globe and Mail , January 2, 2015.
  5. "A mighty heart: Michael Christie on his debut novel, If I Fall, If I Die". Quill & Quire , January 2015.
  6. "Margaret Atwood, Andre Alexis among 12 authors up for $100,000 Giller book prize". Toronto Star , September 3, 2019.
  7. "Evergreen Award™ Winners and Nominees 2005–2022" (PDF). forestofreading.com.
  8. "2020 Winners & Finalists". BC and Yukon Book Prizes.
  9. "2020 Winners and Finalists". BC and Yukon Book Prizes.
  10. Debra Yeo, "Climate change novel ‘Greenwood’ wins Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel". Toronto Star , May 25, 2020.
  11. "Meet the Canada Reads 2023 contenders". CBC Books , January 25, 2023.
  12. Mike Devlin, "Galiano Island spurs author Michael Christie’s imagination". Victoria Times-Colonist , October 13, 2019.