CV

Education

Oct 1988 – July 1989 ◦ University of Florence, Florence, Italy ◦ Italian Studies
Sept 1984 – Aug 1987 ◦ Concordia University ◦ M.A., English, Creative Writing Option
Sept 1977 – Apr 1981 ◦ York University, Toronto ◦ B.A., Specialized Honours English

Appointments

July 2018 – July 2020 ◦ Western University, London ◦ Professor, Alice Munro Chair in Creativity
July 2017 ◦ Humber School for Writers, Toronto ◦ Creative Writing Instructor
May – July 2017 ◦ University of Guelph ◦ Mentor, MFA in Creative Writing
July 2016 – June 2017 ◦ University of Windsor ◦ LTA Assistant Professor and Writer-in-Residence, English & Creative Writing
July 2016 ◦ Sage Hill Writing Experience, Dundurn, Saskatchewan ◦ Creative Writing Instructor
Feb/Mar 2016 ◦ Colorado College, Colorado Springs ◦ Albert H. Daehler Visiting Professor in Creative Writing
Jan 2016 – July 2016 ◦ Humber School Correspondence Program ◦ Creative Writing Instructor
Jan 2016 – July 2016 ◦ Diaspora Dialogues Mentorship Program ◦ Creative Writing Mentor
Jan 2015 – April 2015 ◦ University of Toronto Scarborough ◦ Writer-in-Residence
October 2014 ◦ IFOA Humber School for Writers ◦ Creative Writing Instructor
Sept 2013 – Jan 2014 ◦ Princeton University ◦ Pathy Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies
May – June 2012 ◦ The Banff Centre ◦ Writing Studio Instructor
October 2011 ◦ Colorado College ◦ Maclean Distinguished Visiting Professor
Sept 2011 – May 2012 ◦ Humber School for Writers Correspondence Program
Sept – Dec 2009 ◦ Bridgewater University ◦ Killam Visiting Professor
Mar – June 2009 ◦ Kitchener Public Library ◦ Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence
Jan – May 2008 ◦ John Carroll University ◦ G. M. Hopkins Chair in Literary Studies
Summer 1993 – present ◦ Humber School for Writers ◦ Creative Writing Instructor
Sept 2005 – May 2006 ◦ University of Windsor ◦ Writer-in-Residence
Sept 2005 – Apr 2006 ◦ Assumption University ◦ Chair, Religion and the Arts
Sept 1999 – Apr 2000 ◦ York University Mariano Elia Chair ◦ Writer-in-Residence
May 1999 ◦ BC Festival of the Arts, Victoria, ◦ Creative Writing Instructor
Dec 1997 – Apr 1998 ◦ North York Public Library ◦ Writer-in-Residence
July 1996 ◦ Maritime Writers’ School ◦ Creative Writing Instructor
Sept 1987 – May 1988 ◦ Concordia University ◦ Creative Writing & Can. Lit.
Jan – May 1987 ◦ Concordia University ◦ Composition Instructor
Jan – May 1986 ◦ Concordia University ◦ Creative Writing Instructor
Sept 1981 – July 1983 ◦ Ogun State, Nigeria ◦ Secondary School Teacher

Community service

2014 – present ◦ Amnesty International Book Club, Canada ◦ Advisor & Spokesperson
2013, 2014 ◦ Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award for a Writer in Mid-Career ◦ Juror
2011 – 2014 ◦ Canadian Society of Italian Studies ◦ Distinguished Honorary Member
2009 – present ◦ Honorary Patron/Juror, Kobzar Literary Award
2009 ◦ Juror, Canadian Authors Assocaiton Fiction Award
2006 – present ◦ Advisory Council, Diaspora Dialogues
2004 – 2005 ◦ Juror, IMPAC Literary Award, Dublin
1999 ◦ Juror, Giller Prize for Fiction, Toronto
1997 – 2000 ◦ Authors’ Committee, Writers’ Trust of Canada
1997 – 1999 ◦ Board of Directors ◦ Cultural Industries Council of Ontario
1995 – 1996 ◦ President ◦ PEN Canada (The Canadian Centre of International PEN)
1990 – 1997 ◦ PEN Canada ◦ Board of Directors
1985 – 1988 ◦ Amnesty International, Group 13, Montreal ◦ Outreach Co-ordinator

Awards

Lifetime Achievement
Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award for a Writer in Mid-Career ◦ 2012
Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, University of Windsor ◦ 2012
Member of the Order of Canada, Government of Canada ◦ 2011
Pinnacle Achievement Award, York University ◦ 2010
Alistair MacLeod Award for Literary Achievement ◦ 2006
Valigia d’Oro Award ◦ 2005
President’s Award, Leonardo Da Vinci Academy ◦ 2003
Calliope Award for Outstanding Writing and Mentoring, Humber School ◦ 2002
Association of Italian Canadian Writers Honorary Lifetime Membership ◦ 2002

For the novel Sleep
Canadian Authors Award for Fiction
Toronto Star Top 5 Book
Globe and Mail Best Book
National Post Best Book
National bestseller

For The Origin of Species
Governor General’s Award for Fiction
Canadian Authors Association Fiction Award
shortlist, Commonwealth Prize for Canada and the Caribbean
longlist, Giller Prize for Fiction
Globe and Mail Best Book
National Post Top 10 Book
Amazon.ca Best Book

For Testament
Trillium Award for Literature
shortlist, Commonwealth Prize for Canada and the Caribbean
shortlist, Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
shortlist, Pearson Canada Readers’ Choice Award
U.S. Booklist Top 10 Historical Novel of the Year
Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year
Los Angeles Times Overlooked Book of the Year

For Where She Has Gone
shortlist, Giller Prize for Fiction
longlist, Guardian Fiction Award, United Kingdom

For Lives of the Saints
Governor General’s Award for Fiction
W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award
F.G. Bressani Prize for Prose, Italian Cultural Centre Society, Canada
Betty Trask Award for Literature, The Society of Authors, United Kingdom
Winifred Holtby Prize, The Royal Society of Literature, United Kingdom
Selection of the Month for France’s national bookstore assocation L’oiel de la lettre
Selection of the Month for France’s libraries association
short list, QSPELL Award for Quebec Fiction in English
short list, Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
New York Times Best Book

Lives of the Saints was published in the U.S. as The Book of Saints.

Publications

NOVELS

Sleep
Doubleday Canada, Toronto, 2015
Leméac Éditeur, Montreal (forthcoming)

The Origin of Species
The Other Press, New York, 2010
Doubleday Canada, Toronto, 2008 (Anchor Paperback, 2009)

Testament
Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2003 (Mariner Paperback, 2004)
Doubleday Canada, Toronto, 2002 (Anchor Paperback, 2003)
as ЗAвEт, AST Publishers, Moscow, 2009
as Заветът, Perseus Books, Sofia, 2008
as Zavet (tr. Dubravka Srećković Divković), Laguna Publishers, Belgrade, 2008
as Testamentet (tr. Astrid Lundren), Natur och Cultur, Stockholm, 2003

Where She Has Gone
Picador USA, New York, 1998 (Picador Paperbacks, 1999)
Chatto & Windus, Random House, London, 1998 (Vintage Paperback, 1999)
McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, 1997 (Emblem Paperback, 1998)
as La terra del ritorno, Vol 3 (trans. Gabriella Jacobucci), Fazi, Rome, 2004
as Il fratello italiano (trans. Gabriella Jacobucci), Fazi, Rome, 2000
as Dit hon fösvunnit (trans. Astrid Lundgren), Norstedts, Stockholm, 1999

In A Glass House
Picador USA, New York, 1995 (Picador Paperback, 1998)
Sinclair Stevenson, London, 1994 (Minerva Paperback, 1995)
McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, 1993 (M&S paper, 1994; Emblem Ed. 1999)
as U staklenoj kući, Laguna Publishers, Belgrade, 2008
as La terra del ritorno, Vol 2 (trans. Gabriella Jacobucci), Fazi, Rome, 2004
as I ett glashus (trans. Astrid Lundgren), Raben Prisma, Stockholm, 1996
as Glashuset (trans. Frants Gundelach), Forlaget Per Kofod, Copenhagen, 1994
as Das Glashaus (trans. Dirk van Gunsteren), Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart, 1994

Lives of the Saints
Alfred Knopf, New York, as The Book of Saints, 1991 (Picador Paperback, 1995)
Allison & Busby, London, 1990 (Minerva Paperback, 1991)
Cormorant Books, Dunvegan, 1990
as Житията на светците, Perseus Books, Sofia, 2007
as životi svetaca (tr. Nikola Pajvančić), Laguna Publisher, Belgrade, 2007
as La terra del ritorno, Vol 1 (trans. Gabriella Jacobucci), Fazi, Rome, 2004
as 圣徒传/ (Sheng tu zhuan), trans. Li Ming Yu, Translation Press, Shanghai, 2000
as Zywoty Swietych (tr. Kat. Waszynska), Wydawnictwo Falenica, Warsaw, 1999
as Sventuju Gyvenimai (trans. Valdas Petrauskas), Tyto Alba, Vilnius, 1997
as De Slang en de Onschuld (trans. Inge de Jong), Arena, Amsterdam, 1995
as Vite dei Santi (trans. G. Jacobucci), Monteleone Editore, Vibo Valentia, 1994
as Der Biss der Schlange (trans. D. van Gunsteren), Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart, 1993
as Slangen og de blå øjne (trans F. Gundelach), Per Kofod, Copenhagen, 1992
as Helgonens liv (trans. Astrid Lundgren), Tidens forlag, Stockholm, 1992
as Vidas de santos (trans. Ana M.a de la Fuente), Seix Barral, Barcelona, 1992
as Les yeux bleus et le serpent (trans. Anne Rabinovitch), De Noël, Paris, 1992

NON-FICTION

Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Éditions du Boréal, Montreal, 2009
Penguin Group, Toronto, 2009 (Extraordinary Canadians series, ed. J. R. Saul)

Roots and Frontiers/Radici e frontiere
Tirrenia Stampatori, Torino, 2003 (trans. Carmen Concilio)
◦ Collected essays and stories in their original English and in Italian translation

SELECTED OTHER PUBLICATIONS

“The Art of Influence” [essay] in National Post, September 2015
Excerpt from Sleep in Globe and Mail, 15 August 2015
Review of Bright-Eyed in Globe and Mail, 17 July 2015
Preface, Scarborough Fair, May 2015
“In Defense of the Mid-Life Writer” [essay] in Toronto Star, 17 November 2012
“The Italian Way” [feature] in enRoute, October 2012
“The Places In Between” [article] in Canadian Geographic, July/August 2011
“Contre la biographie” [essay] in Argument, trans. Marie-André Lamontagne, 13.2, Printemps-Été 2011
“The Origin of Specious” [essay] in The Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 May 2010
Foreword to Sense of Place: A Cross-Border Print Exhibition, Windsor Printmaker’s Forum, Windsor, 2009
Foreword to Morley Callaghan’s A Time for Judas, Exile, Toronto, 2006
“World’s End” [memoir] in Solo, ed. Katherine Govier, M&S, Toronto, 2004
“A Passage to Canada” [memoir] in Passages, Doubleday, Toronto, 2003
“Prowler” [short story] in Toronto Life, August 1999
“Beneath the Sleep of Ideology: A Critical Afterword” in Crossing the Sea by DuoDuo, ed. Lee Robinson, trans. Lee Robinson and Yu Li Ming, House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 1998
“Private Eye” [quarterly column] in Eyetalian Magazine (1995 – 1998)
“Publishers’ Clearing House” [memoir] in Writing Home, ed. C. Rooke, M&S, 1997
“Things Fall Apart” [memoir] in Writing Away, ed. C. Rooke, M&S, 1993
“Home of the Saints” [memoir] in Destinations, Oct 1993
“Questioning Ethnicity” [essay] in Alphabet City, No. 2, 1992
“A Canadian Romance” [feature article] in Toronto Star, 4 Jun 1992
“From Fact to Fiction” [essay] in Italian Canadiana, Vol. 8, 1992
“Where is Here?” [essay] in Vice Versa, No. 35, Nov/Dec 1991
“Going to the Moon” [short story] in Saturday Night, Sept 1990; reprinted in Echoes: Fiction, Media, and Non-Fiction, ed. F. Artichuk et. al., Oxford U. Press, Toronto, 2002
“A Portrait of the Artist in Embryo” [article] in Event, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1990
Excerpt from Lives of the Saints in Writ, No. 22, 1990
Profile of Luigi Malerba, in Saturday Magazine, 11 Nov 1989
Excerpt from Rita, Part I in The Moosehead Anthology, Vol. XII, 1989
“Fountain” [short story] in Ricordi, ed. C.D. Minni, Guernica Editions, Montreal
“The End/s of Woman” [art.] in Cdn Journal of Political & Social Theory, XI, 3, 1987
“Still Life” [short story] in The Fiddlehead, No. 146, Winter 1985

Film & Television

2005 – 2007 ◦ Love and Equity [one hour TV drama], with Paul Quarrington and Erika de Vasconcelos, in development with Alberta FilmWorks, Calgary for CBC TV
1999 ◦ Lives of the Saints, treatment for adaptation of Lives of the Saints trilogy, Capri Films, Toronto [produced as TV miniseries for CTV Canada & Mediaset Italy)
1997 ◦ Mazilli’s Shoes [feature film], in development with Zukerman Productions, Toronto

Adaptations

2015 ◦ Testament ◦ optioned by First Generation Films, Toronto
2002 ◦ Lives of the Saints (La terra del ritorno) ◦ mini-series adaptation of the Lives of the Saints Trilogy by Capri Films for CTV and Italy’s Mediaset, starring Jessica Paré, Nick Mancuso, Fab Filippo, Kris Kristofferson and Sophia Loren