A Note from the Hosts: Why We ♥ Doug
Douglas Glover—who manages to be both prolific and consistently excellent at once—is the author of five short story collections, four novels, two books of essays, and a critical work on Don Quixote. He’s the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada Timothy Findley Award for best mid-career writer (2007), the Governor General’s Award for fiction for his novel Elle (also shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award), and he was the subject of a critical documentary called The Writing Life. He’s been hailed by The Wall Street Journal as “a master of narrative structure,” and by Maclean’s Magazine as “the most eminent unknown Canadian writer alive” (!). We were delighted to publish one of his critical books last year (Attack of the Copula Spiders, Biblioasis 2012), and we’re very much looking forward to reading the collection of short stories he’ll be sharing with us in a few weeks’ time.
As a fiction-writer Doug is known for two things: for the intensity of his attention to prose style, and—again, in an unusual combination—the humanity and warmth of his plots. As a teacher, moreover, he’s famous, if not notorious, for the care he lavishes on student work. When we launched Copula Spiders with Doug last year at the AWP annual convention, at least half-a-dozen former students approached us to say: I’ll never forget him. I would hand him a 5-page story, and a few weeks later he’d hand me my story back, along with TWENTY PAGES OF NOTES. From what we hear his lectures on “How to Write a Novel” and “How to Write a Short Story” are legendary. It’s a real coup to have him in Windsor for a night, and I’d heartily encourage anyone who enjoys creative writing—and especially anyone who has aspirations to one day be a writer—to come out, listen to his stories, and stay and chat with him afterwards. It’s a rare opportunity.
via email : Webview : Live at Biblioasis: Douglas Glover & Catherine Bush.