Jane Urquhart

Jane Urquhart, OC (born June 21, 1949) is a Canadian author.

Biography

Born 200 miles north of Thunder Bay, Ontario in Little Longlac. Jane Urquhart is the third of three children and the only daughter of Marian (born Quinn) and Walter (Nick)Carter, a prospector and mining engineer. Urquhart spent her later childhood and adolescence in Toronto, where she was educated at Havergal College, an elite private school for girls. She received her first B.A in English literature (1971) from the University of Guelph.

While there, she met visual artist Paul Keele, and they were married in 1968. Keele was killed in a car accident in 1973; Jane then returned to the University of Guelph to study art history, obtaining her second B.A. in 1976. The same year, she married visual artist Tony Urquhart. [ [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/writers/027005-6000-e.html "Canadian Writers"] , an examination of archival manuscripts, typescripts, correspondence, journals and notebooks at Library and Archives Canada] The Urquharts have one daughter, Emily, born in 1977.

Urquhart has been writer-in-residence at the University of Ottawa and at Memorial University of Newfoundland and, during the winter and spring of 1997, she held the presidential writer-in-residence fellowship at the University of Toronto. She has also given readings and lectures in Canada, Britain, Europe, the USA and Australia. Currently, she is writer in residence at the University of Guelph.

Urquhart divides her time between Southwestern Ontario and Ireland.

Works

Urquhart's books have been published in many countries, including the Netherlands, France, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia, Australia, and the United States, and have been translated into several languages.

Novels

*"The Whirlpool" (1986)
*"Changing Heaven" (1990)
*"Away" (1993)
*"The Underpainter" (1997)
*"The Stone Carvers" (2001)
* "A Map of Glass" (2005)

hort fiction

*"Storm Glass" (1987)

Poetry

*"I'm Walking in the Garden of His Imaginary Palace"
*"False Shuffles"
*"The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan"

Awards and honours

In 1994 Urquhart received the Marian Engel Award for an outstanding body of prose written by a Canadian woman. In 1996 she was named to France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres as a chevalier, and "Away" was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the world's largest literary prize for a single work of fiction. In 1997 Urquhart was asked to serve on the jury for this award.

In the fall of 1997, her fourth novel, "The Underpainter", was published to wide critical acclaim, winning the 1997 Governor General's Award for English Fiction, and becoming a fixture on the national bestseller lists.

In 1992, her novel "The Whirlpool" was the first Canadian book to win France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur livre etranger (Best Foreign Book Award). Her third novel, "Away", remained on "The Globe and Mail"''s national bestseller list for 132 weeks (the longest of any Canadian book), and won the 1994 Trillium Book Award.

In 2001 she published "The Stone Carvers", a highly acclaimed international bestseller that was a finalist for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

In 2005, Urquhart was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.cbc.ca/wordsatlarge/features/feature.php?storyId=389 "Planet" from "Some Other Garden"] , online at CBC Words at Large
* [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/ecrivains/ "Jane Urquhart" in "Canadian Writers"] , an examination of archival manuscripts, typescripts, correspondence, journals and notebooks at Library and Archives Canada
* [http://www.tonyurquhart.ca/ "Jane Urquhart's husband, Tony Urquhart"]
* [http://www.niagarapoetry.ca/urquhart.htm A selection of 10 poems relating to Niagara from "False Shuffles" transcribed with permission on the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website]

External links

* [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0010841 Jane Urquhart's] entry in [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=HomePage&Params=A1 The Canadian Encyclopedia]
* [http://webcast.univ-paris3.fr/podcasts/conferences/Entrées/2008/6/16_Voice_%26_Vision_%3A_Jane_Urquhart_%28I%29.html Jane Urquhart's video in Les podcasts de la sorbonne nouvelle]