Michel Basilières | |
---|---|
Born | 1960 Montreal, Quebec |
Occupation | Novelist |
Language | English |
Genre | Fiction |
Years active | 2003-present |
Notable works | Black Bird |
Notable awards | Amazon.ca First Novel Award (2004) |
Michel Basilières (born 1960 in Montreal) is a Canadian writer, best known for his 2003 debut novel Black Bird. [1]
Basilières, the son of a Québécois father and an English Canadian mother, grew up as an anglophone despite his French surname. [2] He studied creative writing at Concordia University, but dropped out before graduating, and spent much of his adult life working in bookstores in both Montreal and Toronto. [1]
Black Bird was published in 2003 as part of Knopf Canada's New Faces of Fiction series of works by emerging writers. [3] A comic, magic realist take on the October Crisis of 1970, [3] the novel won the 2004 Books in Canada First Novel Award, [4] and was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour [5] and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Novel. [4]
Following his award win, Basilières was a freelance book reviewer for the Toronto Star, the National Post and The Globe and Mail, and taught creative writing at the University of Toronto.
His second novel, A Free Man, published in 2015, [6] was a ReLit Award finalist in 2016.
Year | Title | Award | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2004 | Black Bird | Books in Canada First Novel Award | Winner | [7] |
Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Novel | Shortlist | [4] | ||
Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour | Shortlist | [5] | ||
2016 | A Free Man | ReLit Award for Novel | Shortlist |
Michel Basilières | |
---|---|
Born | 1960 Montreal, Quebec |
Occupation | Novelist |
Language | English |
Genre | Fiction |
Years active | 2003-present |
Notable works | Black Bird |
Notable awards | Amazon.ca First Novel Award (2004) |
Michel Basilières (born 1960 in Montreal) is a Canadian writer, best known for his 2003 debut novel Black Bird. [1]
Basilières, the son of a Québécois father and an English Canadian mother, grew up as an anglophone despite his French surname. [2] He studied creative writing at Concordia University, but dropped out before graduating, and spent much of his adult life working in bookstores in both Montreal and Toronto. [1]
Black Bird was published in 2003 as part of Knopf Canada's New Faces of Fiction series of works by emerging writers. [3] A comic, magic realist take on the October Crisis of 1970, [3] the novel won the 2004 Books in Canada First Novel Award, [4] and was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour [5] and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Novel. [4]
Following his award win, Basilières was a freelance book reviewer for the Toronto Star, the National Post and The Globe and Mail, and taught creative writing at the University of Toronto.
His second novel, A Free Man, published in 2015, [6] was a ReLit Award finalist in 2016.
Year | Title | Award | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2004 | Black Bird | Books in Canada First Novel Award | Winner | [7] |
Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Novel | Shortlist | [4] | ||
Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour | Shortlist | [5] | ||
2016 | A Free Man | ReLit Award for Novel | Shortlist |