Mark Abley

Mark Abley

Mark Abley (born 13 May 1955) is a Canadian poet, journalist, editor and non-fiction writer.

Born in Warwickshire, England, he moved to Canada as a small boy and grew up in Lethbridge, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He attended the University of Saskatchewan from which he won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1975. He won prizes for his poetry while a student at St. John's College, Oxford, and began to write full-time after moving to Toronto in 1978. He has been a contributing editor of both Maclean's and Saturday Night magazines, and a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement. In 1996 he won Canada's National Newspaper Award for critical writing.

Since 1983 Abley has lived in the Montreal area. For sixteen years he worked as a feature writer and book-review editor at the Montreal Gazette. He returned to freelance writing in 2003, though he continues to write columns on language issues for the Gazette. In 2009 he joined McGill-Queen's University Press as a part-time acquisition editor. He is the first-ever writer-in-residence for the city of Pointe-Claire in 2010-11.

He has written three books of poetry, two children's books, and several books of non-fiction. The best-known is probably Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages (2003), which was short-listed for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montreal and the Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize. It was translated into French, Spanish and Japanese, and was largely responsible for Abley being awarded the LiberPress Prize in Girona, Spain, in October 2009. He has also given lectures at Oxford University, Cambridge University, Ohio State University and elsewhere.

In 2005 Abley was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for research into language change. His book The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from the Future of English appeared in May 2008. It was praised as "fascinating" in The Times (London), and hailed by William Safire in The New York Times. In August 2009 Abley published a children's book about words and their origins, Camp Fossil Eyes.

Abley has edited several books, including When Earth Leaps Up by Anne Szumigalski. He is Szumigalski's literary executor. He has taught for the Quebec Writers' Federation and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Selected bibliography

  • Beyond Forget: Rediscovering the Prairies (literary travel), 1986.
  • Blue Sand, Blue Moon (poetry), 1988.
  • Glasburyon (poetry), 1994.
  • Ghost Cat (children's book), 2001.
  • Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages (literary travel, cultural polemic), 2003.
  • The Silver Palace Restaurant (poetry), 2005.
  • The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches From the Future of English (analysis of language change and its implications), 2008.
  • Camp Fossil Eyes: Digging for the Origins of Words (children's book), 2009.

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mark Abley — est un poète, journaliste, écrivain de chroniques de voyages et éditeur canadien né en Angleterre le 13 mai 1955. Il a passé le plus clair de sa jeunesse à Saskatchewan et Alberta. Entre 1975 et 1978, il est étudiant à la St John s… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Yuchi — The Yuchi, also spelled Euchee and Uchee , are a Native American Indian tribe previously living in the eastern Tennessee River valley in Tennessee, northern Georgia, and northern Alabama, who now primarily live in the northeastern Oklahoma area.… …   Wikipedia

  • Yuchi — Ursprüngliches Siedlungsgebiet der Yuchi Die Yuchi (auch Euchee oder Uchee buchstabiert) sind ein nordamerikanisches Indianervolk, das ursprünglich im Osten des vom Tennessee River gebildeten Flusstales im heutigen Tennessee, dem nördlichen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 2005 — U.S. and Canadian Fellows= A* Mark Abley, Writer, Pointe Claire, Québec, Canada: A book about language change. * Kim Addonizio, Poet, Oakland, California: Poetry. * Anne Aghion, Film Maker, New York City: Film making. * Ian Agol, Associate… …   Wikipedia

  • Sedgefield Council election, 2007 — Elections to Sedgefield Council were held on 3 May, 2007. The whole council was up for election and the Labour party stayed in overall control of the council.A notable result was in New Trimdon and Trimdon Grange ward where the Conservative party …   Wikipedia

  • Eric Gregory Award — The Eric Gregory Award is given by the Society of Authors to British poets under 30 on submission. The awards are up to a sum value of £24000 annually.Winners*2008: Emily Berry, Rhiannon Hooson, James Midgley, Adam O Riordan, Heather Phillipson… …   Wikipedia

  • List of ethnic slurs — The following is a list of ethnic slurs (ethnophaulisms) that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or to refer to them in a derogatory (critical or disrespectful), pejorative (disapproving or… …   Wikipedia

  • Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction — The Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize for Nonfiction is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers Trust of Canada to the best work of non fiction by a Canadian writer. Canada s richest non fiction prize, the winner receives a… …   Wikipedia

  • 1981 in literature — The year 1981 in literature involved some significant events and new books.Events*PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction given for the first time *John Gardner successfully revives the James Bond novel series originated by Ian Fleming with Licence… …   Wikipedia

  • Yuchi language — language name=Yuchi nativename=Tsoyaha familycolor=Isolate states=United States region=East central Oklahoma speakers= 5 family=Language isolate iso2=nai|iso3=yucThe Yuchi language is the language of the Yuchi people living in the southeastern… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”