Wayne Grady (born 1948 in

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

) is a Canadian writer, editor, and translator. He is the author of fourteen books of nonfiction, the translator of more than a dozen novels from the French, and the editor of many literary anthologies of fiction and nonfiction. He currently teaches creative writing in the MFA program at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

. As a translator, Grady has won the 1989

Governor General's Award for French to English translation This is a list of recipients of the Governor General's Award for French-to-English translation. Winners and nominees 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s References {{Governor General's Literary Awards * Translation awar ...

for ''On the Eighth Day'', his translation of

Antonine Maillet Antonine Maillet, (; born May 10, 1929) is an Acadian novelist, playwright, and scholar. She was born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, Canada."Antonine Maillet." ''Paroles d'Acadie : Anthologie de la littérature acadienne (1958-2009)'', edited by ...

's novel ''Le Huitième jour'', and the

John Glassco Translation Prize The John Glassco Translation Prize is an annual Canadian literary award, presented by the Literary Translators' Association of Canada to a book judged the year's best translation into either English or French of a work originally written in any ...

for ''Christopher Cartier of Hazelnut'', his translation of Maillet's ''Christophe Cartier de la Noisette dit Nounours''. As a writer, he won the 2008

National Outdoor Book Award The National Outdoor Book Award (NOBA) was formed in 1997 as an American-based non-profit program which each year presents awards honoring the best in outdoor writing and publishing. It is housed at Idaho State University and chaired by Ron Watte ...

(Nature and the Environment category) for ''The Great Lakes: The Natural History of a Changing Region''. His book ''Bringing Back the Dodo'' (2006) is a collection of intuitive and humbling essays on our history with the natural world, extinction, and our effects on the planet. His

first novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

, ''Emancipation Day'', deals with the marriage, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, of a black man who is passing for white, and a white woman who knows nothing of her husband's past; the novel was inspired by Grady's discovery, while doing genealogical research, that his own great-grandfather was an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

emigrant from the United States."Wayne Grady: Stranger than fiction"
''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', August 1, 2013. ''Emancipation Day'' was named a longlisted nominee for the 2013

Scotiabank Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...

."Meet the Giller long list: This year’s literary prize has a distinct east-coast feel"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', September 16, 2013. ''October 1970'', his English translation of Louis Hamelin's 2010 novel ''La Constellation du Lynx'', was also a longlisted nominee for the Giller in the same year. On April 29, 2014, ''Emancipation Day'' was named the winner of the 2013 Amazon.ca First Novel Award."Windsor, Ont., writer Wayne Grady wins Amazon.ca First Novel Award"

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, April 30, 2014. Grady is married to writer Merilyn Simonds.

Works

*''The Dinosaur Project: The Story of the Greatest Dinosaur Expedition Ever Mounted'' (1993) *''Toronto the Wild: Field Notes of an Urban Naturalist'' (1995) *''Vulture: Nature's Ghastly Gourmet'' (1997) *''The Quiet Limit of the World: A Journey to the North Pole to Investigate Global Warming'' (1997) *''Chasing the Chinook: On the Trail of Canadian Words and Culture'' (1998) *'' Tree: A Life Story'' (2004, co-authored with David Suzuki) *''Bringing Back the Dodo'' (2006) *''The Great Lakes: A Natural History of a Changing Region'' (2007) *''Breakfast at the Exit Cafe: A Journey Through America'' (2010, co-authored with Merilyn Simonds) *''Emancipation Day'' (2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grady, Wayne 1948 births Living people Canadian magazine editors Canadian non-fiction writers Governor General's Award-winning translators Canadian male novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists Writers from Windsor, Ontario Canadian people of African-American descent 21st-century Canadian translators 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male non-fiction writers Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners