Kim Echlin

Kim Echlin (born 1955) is a Canadian novelist, translator, editor and teacher. Her 2009 novel, The Disappeared, was a nominee for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize and has been translated into 19 languages. She has a PhD in English literature and her thesis was on the translation of the Ojibway Nanabush myths.^[1]

Writing

Elephant Winter, the story of a young woman who returns to her rural Ontario home to tend to her dying mother and finds her life altered due to a romantic relationship with a wildlife caretaker at a neighboring safari park, was described as "enormously engaging" by Maureen Garvie in Quill & Quire. Frank Moher further observed in a Saturday Night review of the novel that Sophie's growing empathy is reflected by "prose that is as extravagant in feeling as it is in expression."

Echlin draws on the ancient myths of Demeter and Persephone, as well as on the story of Inanna, in her second novel, Dagmar's Daughter, in which a motherless teen is almost drowned before finding safety on a small island. The woman's story is interwoven with those of three generations of gifted Gaelic-speaking women into a novel that, although difficult, "rewards the effort", according to Canadian Woman Studies reviewer Clara Thomas. Noting that the novel's plot moves at a brisk pace, Elaine Jones added in Resource Links that Dagmar's Daughter relates "a powerful and intriguing story."

Echlin has adapted the ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna for an illustrated book, Inanna: From the Myth of Ancient Sumer. Associated with the planet Venus, Inanna is an ancient goddess that figured prominently in the civilization that existed in the location of modern-day Iraq over four thousand years ago. Although lost for centuries, her stories, carved on stone tablets, were recently recovered by archeologists. Sister to Gilgamesh, Inanna grows to maturity and through her determination, wisdom, and ambition she learns the extent of her own destructive and creative powers. In Inanna Echlin relates the warrior goddess's story in poetic form, from her birth as the daughter of the moon god to her growing desire for her handsome shepherd brother Dumuzi (an Adonis-like character), her death and descent into the underworld, and her fight to regain her place on Earth as well as her power within the pantheon of Sumerian gods. Noting that the book, which is illustrated by European artist Linda Wolfsgruber, would be most valuable to young-adult readers, Patricia D. Lothrop wrote in School Library Journal that Inanna "could be an enticing introduction to a little-known figure from ancient Near East myth." In crafting her book-length story, Echlin positions traditional stories about the goddess "in chronological order, following Inanna's development from an eager, ambitious goddess to the position of the all-powerful queen whose 'light shines through everything,'" according to Resource Links contributor Joan Marshall. Marshall dubbed the book a "fascinating tale of a young goddess who knows how to get the power she wants."

Career

Writer, journalist and educator. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, producer of The Journal (arts documentary), 1985–90; Ottawa Citizen, fiction editor, 1999–2003; freelance writer and editor. University of Toronto School for Continuing Studies, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, instructor in creative writing, 1997–2005; teacher at Ryerson School of Journalism, University of Guelph, and York University. Editor, Banff Centre for the Arts creative nonfiction workshop.

Works

Books

• Elephant Winter (1997) ISBN 978-0143170587
• Dagmar's Daughter (2001) ISBN 978-0143170594
• Inanna: From the Myth of Ancient Sumer (2003) ISBN 978-0888994967
• Elizabeth Smart: A Fugue Essay on Women and Creativity (2004) ISBN 978-0889614420
• The Disappeared (2009) ISBN 978-0143170457

Other writing

• (Translator and editor with Nie Zhixiong) Yuan Ke, Dragons and Dynasties: An Introduction to Chinese Mythology, Penguin (London, England), 1991, ISBN 978-0140586534.
• (Editor) To Arrive Where You Are: Literary Journalism from the Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff Centre Press (Banff, Alberta, Canada), 1999, ISBN 978-0920159712.
• Contributor to books, including Best Canadian Essays 1989, Fifth House Publishers, 1989; Up and Doing: Canadian Women and Peace, Women's Press, 1989; Taking Risks, Banff Centre Press, 1998; and Living Sideways: Trickster in American Indian Oral Traditions, University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. Contributor to periodicals, including Canadian Fiction and Studies in American Indian Literatures. Scriptwriter for television, including Life and Times series.

Awards and honors

• 2011: 1st Prize: Barnes and Noble Discovery Writer for The Disappeared
• 2010: Nominated (long list): Impac Dublin Literary Award for The Disappeared
• 2009: Nominated: Giller for The Disappeared
• 2006: 1st Prize for Creative Non-Fiction, CBC/Air Canada Literary Awards: for I,Witness (on the Cambodian genocide).
• 1997: Torgi Award, for Elephant Winter
• 1997: Nominated, Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award for Elephant Winter
• 1986: Nominated, National Magazine Award for Travel Writing for "Island Sacrifices"

References

Further reading

• Books in Canada, April, 1997, p. 37.
• Canadian Woman Studies, summer-fall, 2001, Clara Thomas, review of Dagmar's Daughter, p. 150.
• Quill & Quire, January, 1997, Maureen Garvie, review of Elephant Winter, p. 35; February, 2001, review of Dagmar's Daughter, p. 29.
• Resource Links, October, 2002, Elaine Jones, review of Dagmar's Daughter, p. 55; December, 2003, Joan Marshall, review of Inanna, p. 36.
• Saturday Night, March, 1997, Frank Moher, review of Elephant Winter, p. 14.
• School Library Journal, March, 2004, Patricia D. Lothrop, review of Inanna, p. 299.