Steven Heighton

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Steven Heighton (born August 14, 1961) is a Canadian novelist, short story writer and poet. He is the author of ten books, including two short story collections, three novels, and five poetry collections.[1] His most recent novel, Every Lost Country, was published in 2010.

Life and work

Heighton was born in Toronto, Ontario, and earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degree, at Queens University.[2]

Heighton's most recent books are the novel Every Lost Country (May 2010) [3] and the poetry collection Patient Frame (April 2010).[4]

Heighton is also the author of the novel Afterlands (2006),which appeared in six countries.[5] The book has recently been optioned for film. Steven Heighton's debut novel, The Shadow Boxer (2001), a story about a young poet-boxer and his struggles growing up, also appeared in five countries.[6]

His work has been translated into ten languages and widely anthologised.[7] His books have been nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the Trillium Award, the Journey Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and Britain’s W.H. Smith Award (best book of the year).[8] He has received the Gerald Lampert Award, gold medals for fiction and for poetry in the National Magazine Awards, the Air Canada Award, and the 2002 Petra Kenney Prize. Flight Paths of the Emperor has been listed at Amazon.ca as one of the ten best Canadian short story collections.[9]

Heighton has been the writer-in-residence at McArthur College, Queen's University, the University of Ottawa, and the Royal Military College of Canada.[10] He has also participated in several workshops including the Summer Literary Seminars, poetry work shop, in St. Petersburg, Russia (2007), and the Writing with Style, short fiction workshop, in Banff, Alberta (2007).[11]

Heighton currently lives in Kingston, Ontario with his family.[12]

Heighton on writing

“Interest is never enough. If it doesn't haunt you, you'll never write it well. What haunts and obsesses you into writing may, with luck and labour, interest your readers. What merely interests you is sure to bore them.”[13]

Bibliography

Novels

  • Shadow Boxer (2000) Knopf Canada
  • Afterlands (2005) Knopf Canada
  • Every Lost Country (2010) Knopf Canada

Short stories

  • Flight Paths of the Emperor (1992) The Porcupine’s Quill
  • On earth as it is (1995) The Porcupine’s Quill
  • The Dead Are More Visible (2012) Knopf Canada

Poetry

Essays

  • The Admen Move on Lhasa: Writing & Culture in a Virtual World (1997) House of Anansi Press

Anthologies and magazines

  • Best Canadian Stories (Oberon, 1989, ’92, ’95, ’04, ’07)
  • The New Story Writers (John Metcalf, ed., Quarry Press, 1991)
  • Best English Short Stories (David Hughes & Giles Gordon, eds., Heinemann, U.K., 1992)
  • The Minerva Book of Short Stories 5 (Hughes & Gordon, eds., Minerva, U.K., 1993)
  • Best of Best English Short Stories 1986-1995 (Hughes & Gordon, eds., Minerva, 1996)
  • The Journey Prize Anthology 4 (M&S, 1992)
  • The Literature of Work (University of Phoenix Press, 1993)
  • The Second Gates of Paradise (Alberto Manguel, ed., MW&R, 1995)
  • Canadian Short Fiction, second edition (W.H. New, ed., Prentice Hall, 1996)
  • Writing Home (Constance Rooke, ed., M&S, 1997)
  • Turn of the Story (Joan Thomas & Heidi Harms, eds., Anansi, 1999)
  • Lost Classics (Ondaatje, Redhill, Spalding, and Spalding, eds. Knopf, 2000)
  • The Reader (Carolyn Meyer & Bruce Meyer, eds., Prentice Hall, 2001)
  • The Notebooks (Michelle Berry & Natalee Caple, eds. Doubleday, 2002)
  • Viewpoints 12 (Prentice Hall, 2002)
  • The New Canon (ed. Carmine Starnino, Vehicule, 2005)
  • Literature (ed. Laurie G. Kirszner, Stephen R. Mandell, and Candace Fertile: Thomson/Nelson 2007)
  • The Exile Book of Canadian Sports Stories (ed. Priscila Uppal, Exile Editions, 2009)

Prizes and honours

  • 1990 Gerald Lampert Award for best first poetry collection (for Stalin’s Carnival)
  • 1992 Finalist, The Journey Prize
  • 1992 National Magazine Awards gold medal for fiction
  • 1993 Finalist, Trillium Award (for Flight Paths of the Emperor)
  • 1995 Finalist, Governor General’s Award for Poetry (for The Ecstasy of Skeptics)
  • 1997 Finalist, Rogers Communication Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize (for Small Change)
  • 2004 National Magazine Awards gold medal for poetry
  • 2008 National Magazine Awards gold medal for fiction
  • 2010 National Magazine Awards gold medal for fiction
  • 2010 K.M. Hunter Award for literature

References

  1. ↑ Canadian Poetry Online
  2. ↑ The Canadian Encyclopedia web site
  3. ↑ House of Anansi Press web site
  4. ↑ House of Anansi Press web site
  5. ↑ Canadian Poetry Online
  6. ↑ Author web site
  7. ↑ Canadian Poetry Online
  8. ↑ Canadian Poetry Online
  9. ↑ Canadian Poetry Online
  10. ↑ Author web site
  11. ↑ Author web site
  12. ↑ House of Anansi Press web site
  13. ↑ Author web site

External links

  • Author's website
  • Steven Heighton's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
  • Interview: Steven Heighton on his new novel: immersed in story.John Geddes June.1 2010
  • Scholerly article: Lhasa Unlimited: The Metaphysics of Death in Steven Heighton's The Admen Move on Lhasa and "Translations of April. Dobozy, T. (2001)
  • Book Review: Yarbrough, S. (2002). THE SHADOW BOXER. Magill Book Reviews
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