Joan Clark BA, D.Litt. (hon.) (née MacDonald) (born 12 October 1934) is a Canadian fiction author. Born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, Nova Scotia, Clark spent her youth in Nova Scotia and

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. She attended

Acadia University Acadia University is a public, predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level. The enabling legislation consists of the Acadia ...

for its drama program, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with English major in 1957. She has worked as a teacher. Clark moved to Alberta in the early 1960s with her engineer husband and attended the University of Alberta before moving to Calgary in1965. There she started to write stories. She lived in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

for two decades. In 1975, she and

Edna Alford Edna Alford (born 19 November 1947 in Turtleford, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian author and editor. She was a graduate of Adam Bowden Collegiate, Saskatoon, and got scholarships to attend the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts. Some of her teache ...

started the literary journal ''

Dandelion ''Taraxacum'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and Nor ...

'' in that province. In 1976, she studied with W. O. Mitchell at the Banff Centre. Clark also served as president of the Writers' Guild of Alberta. She eventually returned to Atlantic Canada in 1985, settling in St. John's, Newfoundland. There she was a founding member of the Writers Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador. Clark served on the jury of the 2001

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 competitio ...

. In 2010 she was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2018, '' An Audience of Chairs'', a film adaptation of her novel was released in 2018.

Awards and recognition

* 1988: fiction finalist,

Governor General's Awards The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

* 1988: finalist,

Books in Canada First Novel Award The Amazon.ca First Novel Award, formerly the Books in Canada First Novel Award, is a Canadian literary award, co-presented by Amazon.ca and ''The Walrus'' to the best first novel in English published the previous year by a citizen or resident o ...

, ''The Victory of Geraldine Gull'' * 1991:

Marian Engel Award Marian may refer to: People * Mari people, a Finno-Ugric ethnic group in Russia * Marian (given name), a list of people with the given name * Marian (surname), a list of people so named Places * Marian, Iran (disambiguation) * Marian, Queensla ...

* 1995:

Geoffrey Bilson Award The Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young Readers is a Canadian literary award that goes to the best work of historical fiction written for youth each year. The award is named after Geoffrey Bilson, a writer of historical fiction ...

, ''The Dream Carvers'' * 1998: Honorary

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Docto ...

Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Grenfell Campus, formerly Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, is a campus of the Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN). It is located in the city of Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The campus has approximately 1,300 students enroll ...

* 1999: Vicky Metcalf Award * 2003:

, ''The Word for Home'' * 2006: longlisted for the

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...

, ''An Audience of Chairs'' * 2010: Order of Canada

Books

*1968: ''Girl of the Rockies'' *1971: ''Thomasina and the Trout Tree'' (Tundra) *1977: '' The Hand of Robin Squires'' (Clarke, Irwin) (''La main de Robin Squires: le mystere de l'ile aux Chenes'', translated by Claude Aubry (P. Tisseyre, 1984) ) ::Penguin Canada paperback editions: , ::other paperback editions: , *1982: ''From a High Thin Wire'' (NeWest) *1985: ''Wild Man of the Woods'' (Viking Canada) ::Penguin Canada paperback *1987: ''The Moons of Madeleine'' (Viking Kestrel) ::Penguin Canada paperback *1988: ''The Victory of Geraldine Gull'' (Macmillan of Canada) *1990: ''Swimming Toward the Light'' (Macmillan of Canada) *1993: ''Eiriksdottir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck'' (Macmillan of Canada) *1995: ''The Dream Carvers'' (Viking Canada) (''Les sculpteurs de rêves'', translated by Catherine Germain (P. Tisseyre, 2004) ) ::Penguin Canada paperback *2000: ''Latitudes of Melt'' (Knopf Canada) ::Vintage Canada paperback , *2002: ''The Word for Home'' (Viking Canada) *2005: '' An Audience of Chairs'' (Knopf Canada) *2015: ''The Birthday Lunch'' (Knopf Canada)

References

External links

Joan Clark's
entry in

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

Writers Union of Canada: Joan ClarkFamous Canadians: Joan Clark
(4 June 1998) {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Joan 1934 births Living people Canadian children's writers 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists People from Queens County, Nova Scotia Writers from Nova Scotia Writers from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador Canadian women novelists Acadia University alumni Canadian women short story writers Canadian women children's writers 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Canadian short story writers