Name Thomas Wharton | Role Novelist | |
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Education University of Calgary, University of Alberta Nominations International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Governor General's Award for English-language fiction Books Icefields, The Logogryph, The Shadow of Malabron, The Fathomless Fire, The Tree of Story | ||
Thomas Wharton, PhD (born 25 February 1963), is a Canadian novelist.
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Life
Born in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Wharton attended the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary. He was a student of Rudy Wiebe and Greg Hollingshead. His first novel began as his M.A. thesis, under the supervision of Kristjana Gunnars. He worked on his PhD at Calgary with Aritha van Herk. Wharton is currently an associate professor of writing and English at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and head of the creative writing department.
Writing
Wharton's first book, Icefields (1995), was awarded the “Best First Book” in the Canada and Caribbean division of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Writers Guild of Alberta “Best First Book Award”, and the Banff Book Festival grand prize.
His second book, Salamander (2002), won the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and was short-listed for the Governor General's Award for Fiction, and the Grant MacEwan Author's Award (2002). It was also a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
The Logogryph was short listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Wharton's Icefields was a finalist in the Canada Reads competition in early 2008.
Wharton has published a three-volume fantasy novel for younger readers, The Perilous Realm. The three books are The Shadow of Malabron (2008), The Fathomless Fire (2012), and The Tree of Story (2013), published by Doubleday Canada and Walker/Candlewick (US/UK).
Wharton's most recent book is the self-published novel Every Blade of Grass (2014), the story of a decades-long correspondence between a man and woman who share a love for the wonders and oddities of nature.