Méira Cook (born May 14, 1964) is a novelist and poet born in
Johannesburg, South Africa
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
, and now residing in Winnipeg, Canada.
Academic career
Méira Cook received her MA from
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...
, South Africa, in 1988; her thesis was a
Lacanian
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...
reading of short stories by
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer ( yi, יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער; November 11, 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Polish-born American Jewish writer who wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated himself into English with the help ...
, She worked as a journalist before she moved to Canada in 1991, where she enrolled at the
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba. Cook taught creative writing classes at the University of Manitoba, was an editor for '' Prairie Fire'', and was the Carol Shields writer in residence at the
University of Winnipeg
The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and kinesiology and applied health as well as gr ...
in 2018.
Poetry and fiction
In 2007 her poetry won first prize in the CBC Literary awards and then in 2008 her work was published in ''The Best Canadian Poetry'' in 2008. In 2012 her poem "The Devil's Advocate" won the inaugural Walrus Poetry Prize. In 2013 her first novel, ''The House on Sugarbush Road'', won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. Cook's ''Nightwatching,'' won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Works
*''Text Into Flesh: A Lacanian Reading Of Selected Short Stories By I.B. Singer'', 1992
*''Fine Grammar of Bones'', 1993
*''Toward a Catalogue of Falling'', 1996
* ''The Blood Girls'', 1998
*''Slovenly Love'', 2003
*''Writing Lovers: Reading Canadian Love Poetry by Women'', 2005
*''Field Marks: Poetry of Don Mckay'', 2006
*''A Walker in the City'', 2011
*'' House on Sugarbush Road'', 2012
*''Monologue Dogs'', 2015
* ''Nightwatching'', 2015
* ''Once More with Feeling'', 2017
* ''The Full Catastrophe'', 2022
McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award The McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award is associated with the Manitoba Book Awards and was established in 1988. It is presented to the Manitoba writer whose adult English language book is judged the best written. The author receives a cash awar ...
in 2013
*Inaugural Walrus Poetry Prize 2012
*Margaret Laurence Award For Fiction