Lynn Coady
Encyclopedia
Life and career
Coady grew up in Port HawkesburyPort Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia
-Historical residents:*Henry Nicholas Paint , member of Parliament for Richmond county, merchant and land owner. His family received land grants at Belle Vue on the Strait of Canso in 1817 and at Point Tupper in 1863, and did much to develop the local communities in the area.*Arthur John Langley ...
, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. After high school, she attended Carleton University in Ottawa; after graduating, she moved to New Brunswick, where she worked at odd jobs for several years and began a career as a playwright. In 1996, she relocated to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
.
Coady's first book, Strange Heaven (1998), was nominated for a Governor General's Award
1998 Governor General's Awards
The winners of the 1998 Governor General's Literary Awards were announced by Jean-Louis Roux, Chairman, and Shirley L. Thomson, Director of the Canada Council for the Arts on November 17 in Ottawa...
. Her second book, Play the Monster Blind (2000), was a national bestseller and a "Best Book" of 2000 for the Globe and Mail. Saints of Big Harbour (2002) was a Globe and Mail "Best Book" in 2002, and Mean Boy was recognized as a "Best Book" in 2006. Her 2011 novel The Antagonist is shortlisted for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Scotiabank Giller Prize
The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries...
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Coady has been awarded the Canadian Authors Association/Air Canada Award for the best writer under thirty, as well as the Dartmouth Book and Writing Award for fiction. Her articles and reviews have been featured in many publications, including Saturday Night
Saturday Night (magazine)
Saturday Night was a Canadian general interest magazine. It was founded in Toronto, Ontario in 1887.The publication was first established as a weekly broadsheet newspaper about public affairs and the arts, which was later expanded into a general interest magazine. The editor, Edmund E. Sheppard,...
, This Magazine
This Magazine
This Magazine is an independent alternative Canadian political magazine. It was launched "by a gang of school activists" in 1966 as This Magazine is About Schools, a journal covering political issues in the education system...
, and Chatelaine
Chatelaine (magazine)
Chatelaine is an English-language Canadian magazine of women's lifestyles. Both Chatelaine and its French-language version, Châtelaine, are published monthly by Rogers Media, Inc., a division of Rogers Communications, Inc...
. She has written several plays, and contributes regularly to The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
.
Coady lives in Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
.
Novels
- Strange Heaven (1998)
- Play the Monster Blind (2000)
- Saints of Big HarbourSaints of Big HarbourSaints of Big Harbour is a novel by Lynn Coady, published in 2002 by Doubleday Canada. It was Coady's first novel to be published in the United States.- Plot summary :...
(2002) - Mean Boy (2006)
- The Antagonist (2011)
Anthologies
- Victory Meat: New Fiction from Atlantic Canada (2003) (editor)
- Penguin Book of Contemporary Canadian Women's Short Stories (2006) (contributor)
- Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories (2007) (contributor)
- The Anansi Reader: Forty Years of Very Good Books (2007) (editor)
- The Journey Prize Stories 20: The Best of Canada's New Writers (2008) (co-editor)
- Great Expectations (2008) House of Anansi (contributor)