Occupation Writer Role Novelist Name Sandra Birdsell | Spouse Jan Nowina-Zarzycki Nationality Canadian | |
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Born April 22, 1942 (age 82)
Hamiota, Manitoba ( 1942-04-22 ) Notable works The Russlander, Waiting for Joe Education University of Winnipeg, University of Manitoba Nominations Scotiabank Giller Prize, Governor General's Award for English-language fiction Books The Russländer, Waiting for Joe, Children of the Day, The Chrome Suite, Agassiz Stories | ||
Sandra Birdsell Invites IFOA Authors to Saskatchewan
Sandra Louise Birdsell, CM (née Bartlette) (born 22 April 1942) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Métis and Mennonite heritage.
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Born in Hamiota, Manitoba, she studied at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, where she studied under Robert Kroetsch.
In 1996, she moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, where she currently resides.
Birdsell was the fifth of eleven children. She lived most of her life in Morris, Manitoba. They moved there shortly after her birth because her father joined the army in 1943. Her father was a French-speaking Cree Metris born in Canada and her mother was a Low-German speaking Mennonite who was born in Russia.
Birdsell left home at the age of fifteen. At the age of thirty-five, she enrolled in Creative Writing at the University of Winnipeg. Five years later, Turnstone Press published her first book, the Night Travellers. Two years later, Ladies of the House was published. Both books are now published as a single volume as Agassiz stories.
There are two main events that have shaped her worldview and had influenced her writing. The first incident happened when Birdsell was six and a half. Her sister died from leukemia. That left a four-year gap between her and her next older sister. She felt ignored and alone even though she was surrounded by 9 other siblings. Her loneliness led her to ponder by herself to the nearby parks and rivers allowing her imagination to go wild.
The second event that shaped her worldview and influenced her writing was the massive flood of Morris in 1950. Her first three successful stories in Night Travellers are based on that flood.
She is a mother to three children and a grandmother to four children. Her husband, Jan Zarzycki, is a filmmaker.
In January 2007, Birdsell began a four-month term as the Carol Shields writer in residence at the University of Winnipeg.
In 2010, Birdsell was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada and in 2012 she was invested with Saskatchewan Order of Merit (SOM).