Joan Clark
Joan Clark was a Canadian fiction author.
Born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Clark spent her youth in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She attended Acadia University for its drama program, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with an English major in 1957. She has worked as a teacher.
Clark moved to Alberta in the early 1960s with her engineer husband and attended the University of Alberta before moving to Calgary in 1965. There she started to write stories. She lived in Alberta for two decades. In 1975, she and Edna Alford started the literary journal Dandelion in that province. In 1976, she studied with W. O. Mitchell at the Banff Centre. Clark also served as president of the Writers' Guild of Alberta. She eventually returned to Atlantic Canada in 1985, settling in St. John's, Newfoundland. There she was a founding member of the Writers Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Clark served on the jury of the 2001 Giller Prize. In 2010 she was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2018, An Audience of Chairs, a film adaptation of her novel was released.
Awards and recognition
- 1988: fiction finalist, Governor General's Awards
- 1988: finalist, Books in Canada First Novel Award, The Victory of Geraldine Gull
- 1991: Marian Engel Award
- 1995: Geoffrey Bilson Award, The Dream Carvers
- 1998: Honorary Doctor of Letters, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College
- 1999: Vicky Metcalf Award
- 2003: Geoffrey Bilson Award, The Word for Home
- 2006: longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, An Audience of Chairs
- 2010: Order of Canada
Books
- 1968: Girl of the Rockies
- 1971: Thomasina and the Trout Tree
- 1977: The Hand of Robin Squires
- 1982: From a High Thin Wire
- 1985: Wild Man of the Woods
- 1987: The Moons of Madeleine
- 1988: The Victory of Geraldine Gull
- 1990: Swimming Toward the Light
- 1993: Eiriksdottir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck
- 1995: The Dream Carvers
- 2000: Latitudes of Melt
- 2002: The Word for Home
- 2005: An Audience of Chairs