Name Pearl Luke Role Novelist | Education University of Calgary | |
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Books Madame Zee, Burning Ground | ||
Pearl Luke (born 21 March 1958) is a Canadian novelist.
Born in Peace River, Alberta, Luke attended University of Calgary and earned first a BA and then an MA in English Literature. She lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, with her partner, poet/novelist Robert Hilles.
For the first forty years of her life, Luke lived in Alberta, where she was active in the literary community, especially in Calgary, where she was an editor-at-large for Dandelion and worked for book publishers Detselig Enterprises and Thomson/Carswell. She gave many public readings and taught numerous writing workshops. In 2001, she moved to British Columbia and has been similarly active in the literary community there. On Salt Spring Island she is a founding member of Salt Spring Writers and Friends, a charity that provides scholarships for beginning writers on the island. She also serves on the Author's Committee for the Writers' Trust of Canada.
In her award-winning first novel, Burning Ground, Luke writes a love story about a bisexual character working in a fire lookout in northern Alberta. This book won her the 2001 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Caribbean and Canada Region), and was a finalist for the George Bugnet Award, the Chapters/Robertson Davies First Novel Award and the Libris Award. Burning Ground was based in part on her experiences as a student working summers on various fire towers.
Her second novel, Madame Zee is a fictional account of the life of Mabel Rowbotham, mistress to the infamous Brother Twelve and his 1920s British Columbia cult of "gold, sex, and black magic", as written about by non-fiction author John Oliphant. Madame Zee was a long-list nominee for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was selected as a book of the month pick by both Chatelaine and Canadian Living.
Luke teaches Advanced Composition online for DeVry University. She also mentors beginner and intermediate writers online, both privately through her website and through the University of British Columbia program Booming Ground.
Luke is out as bisexual.