Michel Basilières

Michel Basilières
Born1960
Montreal, Quebec
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction
Years active2003-present
Notable worksBlack Bird
Notable awardsAmazon.ca First Novel Award (2004)

Michel Basilières (born 1960 in Montreal) is a Canadian writer, best known for his 2003 debut novel Black Bird.[1]

Background

Basilières, the son of a Québécois father and an English Canadian mother, grew up as an anglophone despite his French surname.[2] He studied creative writing at Concordia University, but dropped out before graduating, and spent much of his adult life working in bookstores in both Montreal and Toronto.[1]

Career

Black Bird was published in 2003 as part of Knopf Canada's New Faces of Fiction series of works by emerging writers.[3] A comic, magic realist take on the October Crisis of 1970,[3] the novel won the 2004 Books in Canada First Novel Award,[4] and was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour[5] and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Novel.[4]

Following his award win, Basilières was a freelance book reviewer for the Toronto Star, the National Post and The Globe and Mail, and taught creative writing at the University of Toronto.

His second novel, A Free Man, published in 2015,[6] was a ReLit Award finalist in 2016.

Awards

Awards for Basilières's writing
Year Title Award Result Ref.
2004 Black Bird Books in Canada First Novel Award Winner [7]
Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Novel Shortlist [4]
Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour Shortlist [5]
2016 A Free Man ReLit Award for Novel Shortlist

Publications

  • Black Bird. Vintage Books. 2003. ISBN 978-0-676-97528-4.
  • A Free Man. a misFit book. 2015. ISBN 978-1-770-41233-0.

References

  1. ^ a b "An ambition fulfilled". Montreal Gazette, April 12, 2003.
  2. ^ "Alone between two solitudes". The Globe and Mail, May 5, 2003.
  3. ^ a b "The October Crisis you've never seen". Ottawa Citizen, March 27, 2003.
  4. ^ a b c "First Novel prize goes to October Crisis story". Kingston Whig-Standard, October 14, 2004.
  5. ^ a b "Leacock shortlisters". National Post, March 25, 2004.
  6. ^ "Allowing Oneself To be Deceived". National Post, May 9, 2015.
  7. ^ "Basilieres wins first novel award". The Telegram, October 17, 2004.