Acclaimed Canadian author Sandra Birdsell began her four-month term in January as UWinnipeg’s second Carol Shields Writer-in-Residence, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. Birdsell, born and raised on the Prairies, is an award-winning writer, whose books include Agassiz,The Missing Child, The Chrome Suite, TheRusslander, and Children of the Day, in addition to work for theater, television, radio, and film.
As Carol Shields Writer-in-Residence, Birdsell will mentor emerging student and community writers. In addition to devoting time to her own creative works, Birdsell will read and respond to manuscripts, hold regular office hours for students and the public, organize reading series, seminars or lectures on writing, and deliver public readings of her work.
“Having an excellent creative writer on campus to interact, stimulate and inspire faculty and students enriches our community,” says Murray Evans, Chair of the English Department. “I think this program is important because it gives the University and larger community an amazing opportunity to meet with Sandra Birdsell.”
University of Winnipeg is where Birdsell began her journey as a writer many years ago. “The very first story that I ever wrote in my life I wrote here, at The University of Winnipeg for a creative writing class.It was also the very first story that I ever got published,” says Birdsell as she warmly remembers her early days of writing.
Birdsell was born and raised on the Prairies whose landscape and people continue to be the inspiration for her writing. Since the publication of her first book, Birdsell has written three collections of short fiction, four novels, a novel for children, radio and theatre plays, as well as television and film scripts. She has also contributed to numerous short story anthologies.
Her first novel, The Missing Child, received the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award in 1989. Her second novel, The Chrome Suite, was awarded the McNally Robinson prize for best book of the year, and was nominated for a Governor General’s Award in 1992. A third short story collection, The Two-Headed Calf, was also a Governor General Award nominee in 1997. Birdsell was awarded the Marion Engel Award in 1993, Canada’s most prestigious prize given to a woman in mid-career, and the Joseph B. Stauffer Prize in 1992, for meritorious achievement, by the Canada Council for the Arts. The Russländer, published in September 2001, and was a bestseller and finalist for the prestigious Giller Prize. The Russländer was also awarded Book of the Year, Best Fiction, and the City of Regina awards at the Saskatchewan Book Awards in 2001. Birdsell’s latest novel is Children of the Day.
The Writer-in-Residence service is free, open to the public, and runs from January to April 2007. Email s.birdsell@uwinnipeg.ca or call 204.786.9203.
