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by George J. Dance

Janice-kulyk-keefer

Janice Kulyk Keefer. Courtesy Brick Books.

Janice Kulyk Keefer (born June 2, 1952) is a Canadian poet, novelist, and academic.[1]

Life[]

Keefer was born Janice Kulyk in Toronto, of Ukrainian heritage.[1] Her father was born in Ontario, the son of immigrants from Galicia (now part of Ukraine), while her mother was an immigrant from eastern Galicia. Her sister is artist Karen Kulyk. She grew up in the WASP suburb of Islington.[2]

Janice studied English literature at the University of Toronto,[1] earning a B.A. in 1974 and an M.A in 1976.[2] She then earned an M.Phil.,[1] and a D.Phil. in 1983,[2] at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England.[1]

She spent a year in France and a year in Ottawa, then 9 yeara in Nova Scotia,[2] as an assistant professor in the department of English studies at the Universite Sainte-Anne, Pointe-de-l'Église. She then returned to the School of English at the University of Sussex as a visiting research fellow.[1] From 1990 on,[2] she was a professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario.[1]

Keefer has lectured on Canadian writing and given readings from her work across Canada and Europe, as well as in Australia, Japan, New Zealand. and the United States.[3]

She has reviewed literary books for the Globe & Mail, judged numerous Canadian literary competitions, and taught at creative writing workshops across Canada, including Banff Writers Center, Sage Hill, and the Humber School for Writers.[3]

Keefer is a specialist in Modernist literature, who wrote her graduate theses on Virginia Woolf and Joseph Conrad, and whose 2004 novel Thieves is a fictionalized biography of Katherine Mansfield. She has also written on Canadian literature in 2 academic works, Under Eastern Eyes (1987) and Reading Mavis Gallant (1989).[1]

She is retired, and lives in Ontario with her husband, Michael Keefer. The Keefers have 2 grown sons.[2]

Recognition[]

Kulyk Keefer's awards include 1st prize (twice) in the CBC Radio Literary Competition and the National Magazine Award; the Canadian Authors Association poetry award; the Marian Engel Award; and the $25,000 Kobzar Award.[3]

She has been awarded several Canada Council grants for the arts, and 2 grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.[3]

Keefer's work has been short-listed for a Governor General's Literary Award twice: in 1987, in the non-fiction category, for Under Eastern Eyes, her study of Canadian Maritime fiction; and in 1996, in the fiction category, for her novel The Green Library, about a Canadian girl learning about her Ukrainian heritage.[1]

She was named winner of the Marian Engel Award, given to a female Canadian writer in mid-career for her complete body of work, in 1999.[1]

Awards[]

  • 1990: National Magazine Award, poetry, first prize.[4]
  • 1991: Malahat Long Poem Prize, “Isle of Demons”.[4]
  • 1994: National Magazine Award, poetry, first prize.[4]
  • 1999: Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry, Marrying the Sea.[4]
  • 2006: Greifswald Canadian Studies Fellow in Residence, University of Greifswald, Germany
  • 2008: Kobzar Literary Award (Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko)

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • White of the Lesser Angels. Charlottetown, PEI: Ragweed Press, 1986.
  • Marrying the Sea. London, ON: Brick Books, 1998.

Novels[]

  • Constellations. Toronto: Random House, 1988.
  • Honey and Ashes: A story of family. Toronto: HarperFlamingo, 1998.
  • Rest Harrow. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1992.
  • The Green Library. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1996.
  • Thieves: A novel of Katherine Mansfield. Toronto: HarperFlamingo, 2004.
  • The Ladies' Lending Library. HarperCollins, 2007.[5]

Short fiction[]

  • The Paris-Napoli Express. Ottawa: Oberon, 1986.
  • Transfigurations. Charlottetown, PEI: Ragweed Press, 1987.
  • Travelling Ladies. Toronto: Random House, 1990.

Non-fiction[]

Juvenile[]

  • Anna's Goat. Victoria, BC: Orca, 2000.

Edited[]

  • Two Lands, New Visions: Stories from Canada and Ukraine (edited by Janice Kulyk Keefer & Solomea Pavlychko). Regina: Coteau Books, 1998.
  • Precarious Present / Promising Future?: Ethnicity and identities in Canadian literature (edited by Janice Kulyk Keefer, Richard E. Sherwin & Danielle Schaub). Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1996.
Janice_Kulyk_Keefer_reads_from_Marrying_the_Sea_(Brick_Books)

Janice Kulyk Keefer reads from Marrying the Sea (Brick Books)


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Brock University.[4]

See also[]

References[]

Notes[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Lindy Ledohowski, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Canadian Encyclopedia, December 16, 2013. Web, Apr. 15, 2017.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Janice Kulyk Keefer, English-Canadian Writers, Athabasca University. Web, Apr. 15, 2017.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Janice Kulyk Keefer, John Kenneth Galbraith Literary Award. Web, Apr. 15, 2017.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Janice Kulyk Keefer 1952- , Canadian Women Poets, Brock University, BrockU.ca, Web, July 2, 2012.
  5. [ http://www.harpercollins.ca/books/Ladies-Lending-Library-Keefer-Janice-Kulyk/?isbn=9780002007436 The Ladies' Lending Library, HarperCollins Canada, Web, July 3, 2012.

External links[]

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