Eden Robinson
| Eden Robinson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Eden Robinson January 19, 1968 Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | Haisla/Heiltsuk |
| Genre | Native American literature |
| Literary movement | Indigenous Nationalism |
| Notable works |
• Monkey Beach • Traplines • Blood Sports |
| Notable awards |
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize 2001 |
Eden Victoria Lena Robinson (born 19 January 1968) is a novelist and short story writer from Haisla First Nation, an Indigenous nation in British Columbia, Canada.[1]
Life
Childhood
Born in Kitamaat, British Columbia, she is a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations.[1] Her sister, Carla Robinson, is a television journalist for CBC Newsworld.
Education
She was educated at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia.
Literary works
Robinson's first book, Traplines (1995), was a collection of four short stories. The young narrators recount haunting tales of their disturbing relationships with sociopaths and psychopaths. The collection won Britain's Winifred Holtby Prize for the best regional work by a Commonwealth writer. One of the stories, "Queen of the North", was also published in The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women. Another of her short stories, "Terminal Avenue", (which was not included in Traplines) was published in the anthology of postcolonial science fiction and fantasy So Long Been Dreaming.
Her second book, Monkey Beach (2000), was a novel. It is set in Kitamaat territory and follows a teenaged girl's search for answers to and understanding of her younger brother's disappearance at sea while in the retrospective, it tells a story about growing up on a Haisla reserve. The book is both a mystery and a spiritual journey, combining contemporary realism with Haisla mysticism. Monkey Beach was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize[2] and the Governor General's Literary Award, and received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
In her third book, Blood Sports (2006), also a novel, Robinson returns to the characters and urban terrain of her novella "Contact Sports," from Traplines.
Awards and honours
She won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 2001 for Monkey Beach, and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award in 2016 for her body of work.[3]
Bibliography
- Traplines (1996), ISBN 0-8050-4446-9
- Monkey Beach (2000), ISBN 0-618-07327-2
- Blood Sports (2006), ISBN 0-7710-7604-5
- Sasquatch at Home: Traditional Protocols & Modern Storytelling (2011), ISBN 0-8886-4559-7
References
- 1 2 Eden Robinson's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia.
- ↑ "Monkey Beach". CBC Books. CBC. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
- ↑ "Eden Robinson, Gregory Scofield, Yasuko Thanh among 2016 Writers' Trust Prize winners". CBC Books, November 2. 2016.