Ken McGoogan

Ken McGoogan is the Canadian author of eleven books, including 50 Canadians Who Changed the World, How the Scots Invented Canada, and four biographical narratives focusing on northern exploration and published internationally: Fatal Passage (John Rae), Ancient Mariner (Samuel Hearne), Lady Franklin's Revenge (Jane Franklin), and Race to the Polar Sea (Elisha Kent Kane).

Born in Montreal (1947) and raised in a francophone town, McGoogan has traveled widely, both in Canada and abroad. After attending Sir George Williams University, he earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at Ryerson and a master's degree in creative writing at the University of British Columbia.

For two decades, while producing one nonfiction book and three novels, McGoogan earned his living as a journalist and literary editor, working at The Toronto Star, The Montreal Star, and The Calgary Herald. He has since been a writer-in-residence at Toronto Public Library, and in Fredericton, Dawson City, and Hobart, Tasmania. He served as chair of the Public Lending Right Commission, sails as a lecturer with Adventure Canada, and writes regularly for Canada's History magazine. He also teaches creative nonfiction writing online through University of Toronto (Continuing Studies), and in the MFA program at King's College/Dalhousie University.

Awards

McGoogan won the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize, the Canadian Authors' Association History Award, the Grant MacEwan Author's Award, a University of Cambridge fellowship, an American Christopher Award, the Pierre Berton Award (for a body of work, and the University of British Columbia medal for Canadian biography.

Selected works

50 Canadians Who Changed the World. 2013.

How the Scots Invented Canada. 2010

Race to the Polar Sea: The Heroic Adventures of Elisha Kent Kane

Lady Franklin's Revenge: A True Story of Ambition, Obsession and the Remaking of Arctic History. 2005.

Ancient Mariner: The Amazing Adventures of Samuel Hearne, the Sailor Who Walked to the Arctic Ocean. 2003.

Fatal Passage: The Untold Story of John Rae, the Arctic Adventurer Who Discovered the Fate of Franklin. 2001.

Visions of Kerouac: Satori Magic Edition. 2007.

Chasing Safiya. 1999.

Calypso Warrior. 1995.

Canada's Undeclared War: Fighting Words from the Literary Trenches.1991.

Going For Gold. Co-author with Catriona Le May Doan. 2002.

External links