Austin Clarke

Austin Ardinel Chesterfield "Tom" Clarke, (July 26, 1934 – June 26, 2016), was a Barbadian novelist, essayist, and short story writer who was based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Among his notable books are novels such as The Polished Hoe, memoirs including Membering (2015), and two collections of poetry, Where the Sun Shines Best (2013) and In Your Crib (2015).

Early life and education

Austin Clarke was born in 1934 in St. James, Barbados, where he received his early education in Anglican schools.

Career Clarke was a reporter at the Timmins Daily Press and the Globe and Mail, before joining the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a freelance journalist. He subsequently taught at several American universities, including Yale University (Hoyt fellow, 1968–1970), Duke University (1971–1972), and the University of Texas (Visiting Professor, 1973) and helped establish black studies programs at several universities. He was Writer-in-Residence at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec (1977), and at the University of Western Ontario (1978).

He was not the first Canadian writer of African origin with that distinction belonging to 19th-century author Amelia E. Johnson. However, George Elliott Clarke says that Clarke was "the author of African descent in English, in Canada, that anyone who was interested in being a writer would have to be aware of and challenge as well." Previous recipients of the award (established in 1984) include: Dionne Brand, Wayson Choy, Christopher Dewdney, Helen Humphreys, Paul Quarrington, Peter Robinson, Seth, Jane Urquhart, and Guy Vanderhaeghe. Clarke was reported as saying: "I rejoiced when I saw that Authors at Harbourfront Centre had named me this year's winner of the Harbourfront Festival Prize. I did not come to this city on September 29, 1959, as a writer. I came as a student. However, my career as a writer buried any contention of being a scholar and I thank Authors at Harbourfront Centre for saving me from the more painful life of the "gradual student". It is an honour to be part of such a prestigious list of authors."

An outspoken intellectual, he avoided talking about multiculturalism, hoping that his own term ' omniculturalism''' could be accepted by people from both the political left and right.

Selected awards and honours

1980, Casa de las Américas Prize, Cuba 1992, Toronto Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature 1997, Lifetime Achievement Award from Frontier College in Toronto 1998, Member of the Order of Canada. 1999, Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award for Excellence in Writing. 1999, W. O. Mitchell Literary Prize 2002, Giller Prize, for The Polished Hoe