Ethel Wilson

Ethel Davis Wilson, (January 20, 1888 – December 22, 1980) was a Canadian writer of short stories and novels. Her works include Hetty Dorval, The Innocent Traveller (1949), Swamp Angel (1954) and Mrs Golightly and Other Stories (1961).

Life Wilson was born in 1888 in Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony, to Robert and Lila Bryant. She moved to England with her father in 1890 following the death of her mother. In 1898, after the death of her father, she was taken to live with her maternal grandmother, Annie Malkin in Vancouver, British Columbia, but moved back to England at fourteen to attend a school for Methodist ministers' daughters. Ethel eventually returned to Vancouver and received her teacher's certificate a year later in 1907, and for thirteen years taught in Vancouver elementary schools. In 1921 she married Wallace Wilson, President of the Canadian Medical Association and professor of medical ethics at the University of British Columbia. Wilson died in 1980 after suffering a series of small strokes.

Writing career Ethel Wilson's first published work appeared in 1919 as The Surprising Adventures of Peter, a children's serial that ran in the Vancouver Daily Province. Ethel preferred to ignore this debut, and instead later claimed her publishing career began in the 1930s while in the car as her husband made medical calls.

The Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize is named in her honour.