Jane Urquhart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jane Urquhart, OC (born June 21, 1949) is a Canadian author.
Born in Little Longlac, Ontario, she spent her later childhood and adolescence in Toronto. She was educated at Havergal College. She received her B.A in English (1971) and her second B.A. in Visual Art (1975) from the University of Guelph.
In addition to her novels, she has published three books of poetry: I'm Walking in the Garden of His Imaginary Palace, False Shuffles, and The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan.
Urquhart's books have been published in many countries, including the Netherlands, France, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia, Australia, and the United States, and have been translated into several languages.
In 1992, her novel The Whirlpool was the first Canadian book to win France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (Best Foreign Book Award). Her third novel, Away, remained on The Globe and Mail''s national bestseller list for 132 weeks (the longest of any Canadian book), and won the 1994 Trillium Book Award.
In 1994 Urquhart also received the Marian Engel Award for an outstanding body of prose written by a Canadian woman. In 1996 she was named to France's Order of Arts and Letters as a chevalier, and Away was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the world's largest literary prize for a single work of fiction. In 1997 Urquhart was asked to serve on the jury for this award.
Urquhart has been writer-in-residence at the University of Ottawa and at Memorial University of Newfoundland and, during the winter and spring of 1997, she held the presidential writer-in-residence fellowship at the University of Toronto. She has also given readings and lectures in Canada, Britain, Europe, the USA and Australia. Currently, she is writer in residence at the University of Guelph.
In the fall of 1997, her fourth novel, The Underpainter, was published to wide critical acclaim, winning the 1997 Governor General's Award for English Fiction, and becoming a fixture on the national bestseller lists.
In 2001 she published The Stone Carvers, a highly acclaimed international bestseller that was a finalist for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
In 2005, Urquhart was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.
She is married to the Canadian artist Tony Urquhart. Together, they have one daughter, Emily.
She divides her time between Southwestern Ontario and Ireland.
