Clark Blaise

{{short description|Canadian-American writer (born 1940)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2013}} {{Infobox writer | embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = Clark Blaise | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1940|04|10}} | birth_place = Fargo, North Dakota | death_date =  | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Writer | language = English | nationality = Canadian-American | education = | alma_mater = Denison University, University of Iowa | period = | genre =  | subject =  | movement = | notableworks =  | spouse = Bharati Mukherjee (d. 2017) | partner =  | children = Two | relatives = | awards = Officer of the Order of Canada (2009) | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website =  | portaldisp =  }} '''Clark Blaise''', OC (born April 10, 1940) is a Canadian-American author.<ref name="Struthers2016">{{cite book|author=J. R. Tim Struthers|title=Clark Blaise: Essays on His Work|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NDk1jgEACAAJ|year=2016|publisher=Guernica Editions|isbn=978-1-77183-111-6}}</ref> He was a professor of creative writing at York University, and a writer of short fiction. In 2010, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

== Early life and education == Blaise was born in Fargo, North Dakota, to Canadian parents who lived in the United States.<ref name=":0" /> His mother, Anne Marion Vanstone, was English-Canadian and from Wawanesa, Manitoba, and his father, Leo Romeo Blaise, was of French-Canadian descent and was a furniture salesman and long-distance traveller.<ref name=":3" /> Later on, his father would inspire the father characters in Blaise's fiction.<ref name=":3" /> Growing up, his family moved constantly throughout the U.S.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://asc.ucalgary.ca/node/826|title=Clark Blaise - Biocritical Essay {{!}} Basic page|website=asc.ucalgary.ca|access-date=2016-07-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513093147/http://asc.ucalgary.ca/node/826|archive-date=May 13, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Before the eighth grade, he had already moved 30 times; ultimately, he attended 25 different schools.<ref name=":3" /> From ages six to ten, he lived in Florida.<ref name=":3" /> Throughout his childhood, Blaise also lived in Alabama, Georgia, communities in the American Midwest, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Winnipeg.<ref name=":3" /> When Blaise was nineteen, his parents divorced.<ref name=":3" />

He attended Denison University and the University of Iowa, graduating in 1961 and 1964 respectively.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/clark-blaise/|title=Clark Blaise|last=Grandy|first=Karen|access-date=2016-07-08}}</ref> While at Denison University, he initially intended to pursue a major in geology but switched to English<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pifmagazine.com/2003/05/clark-blaise/|title=Clark Blaise ~ interviewed by Derek Alger {{!}} Pif Magazine|website=www.pifmagazine.com|access-date=2016-07-08}}</ref> after taking a writing course in which he studied under Paul Bennett.<ref name=":3" /> While studying at Denison, he read extensively, began writing book reviews for the weekly newspaper, helped edit campus literary magazines, and received several campus writing awards.<ref name=":3" />

== Career == In 1966, Blaise moved to Montreal and obtained Canadian citizenship.<ref name=":0" /> While living in Canada, Blaise published his first two short fiction collections, ''A North American Education'' (1973)<ref>[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-meagre-tarmac-stories-by-clark-blaise/article4261714/ "The Meagre Tarmac: Stories, by Clark Blaise"]. ''The Globe and Mail'', STEVEN HAYWARD, June 17, 2011</ref> and ''Tribal Justice'' (1974)''.''<ref name=":0" />

Blaise was the director of the International Writing Program. While living in Montreal in the early 1970s, he taught creative writing at Concordia University; he also joined with authors Raymond Fraser, Hugh Hood, John Metcalf and Ray Smith to form the Montreal Story Tellers Fiction Performance Group. Blaise and his wife Bharati Mukherjee collaborated on a memoir of experiences in India which was published in 1978.

In 1978, Blaise and Mukherjee moved to Toronto. Blaise became a professor of creative writing at York University, and wrote his first novel.

Mukherjee felt excluded in Canada, attributing it to racism and publishing an essay in ''Saturday Night''.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2011/06/10/clark_blaise_and_bharati_mukherjee.html|title=Clark Blaise and Bharati Mukherjee {{!}} Toronto Star|website=thestar.com|date=June 10, 2011 |access-date=2016-07-08}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/clark-blaise-and-bharati-mukherjee-a-shared-literary-journey/article583203/|title=Clark Blaise and Bharati Mukherjee: a shared literary journey|work=The Globe and Mail|date=June 15, 2011 |access-date=2016-07-08|last1=Barber |first1=John }}</ref> In 1980, the couple decided to return to the United States,<ref name=":1" /> moving to San Francisco.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/the-invisible-canadian/|title=The invisible Canadian {{!}} Quill and Quire|date=September 28, 2011 |language=en-US|access-date=2016-07-08}}</ref> Both continued their literary careers, including a collaborative analysis of the 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182, known in India as the Kanishka bombing.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy|isbn=0670812048 |last1=Blaise|first1=Clark|last2=Mukherjee|first2=Bharati|year=1987|publisher=Viking }}</ref> Blaise wrote two more novels and a number of short stories.

== Personal life == He married writer Bharati Mukherjee in 1963.<ref name="nbc">Frances Kai-Hwa Wang. [https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/award-winning-author-bharati-mukherjee-dead-76-n718476 Award-Winning Author Bharati Mukherjee Dead at 76]. ''NBC News'', Feb.08.2017</ref> They met as students at the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa<ref name=":1" /> and had two sons.<ref name=":2" /> Mukherjee died in 2017.<ref name="nbc" /> Blaise lives in New York.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.canlit.ca/|title=A Quarterly of Criticism and Review|website=Canadian Literature|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-17}}</ref>

== Honours and awards == In 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions to Canadian letters as an author, essayist, teacher, and founder of the post-graduate program in creative writing at Concordia University".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=13469|title=Governor General Announces 57 New Appointments to the Order of Canada|date=December 30, 2009|work=Office of the Secretary to the Governor General|accessdate=2009-12-30}}</ref>

==Bibliography==

===Short story collections=== *''A North American Education'' – 1973 <ref>{{cite news| last = The Canadian Press| title = Modern Day Huck Finn| newspaper = The Phoenix| date = February 9, 1973| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-jFgAAAAIBAJ&dq=%22Wife%22+by+Bharati+Mukherjee&pg=PA64&article_id=4398,2287529| access-date =September 18, 2013}}</ref> *''Tribal Justice'' – 1974 *''Resident Alien'' – 1986 *''Man and His World'' – 1992 *''Southern Stories'' – 2000 *''Pittsburgh Stories'' – 2001 *''Montreal Stories'' – 2003 *''The Meagre Tarmac'' – 2011 (longlisted for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize)

===Novels=== *''Lunar Attractions'' – 1979 (winner of the 1980 Books in Canada First Novel Award) *''Lusts'' – 1984 *''If I Were Me'' – 1997

===Memoirs=== *''Days and Nights in Calcutta'' – 1977 (with Bharati Mukherjee) *''I had a Father'' – 1992

===Non-fiction=== *''The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy'' – 1987 (with Bharati Mukherjee) <ref>[https://www.straight.com/news/994346/long-read-how-1985-air-india-bombing-could-tie-2019-federal-election-canada "Long read: How the 1985 Air India bombing could tie into the 2019 federal election in Canada"]. ''Georgia Straight'', by Charlie Smith on November 12th, 2017</ref> *''Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the creation of standard time'' – 2000

===Criticism=== *''A Novel of India's Coming of Age''<ref>Blaise, Clark. "[https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/18/specials/rushdie-midnight.html A Novel of India's Coming of Age]." ''The New York Times''. April 18, 1999. Retrieved on November 27, 2014.</ref> - ''The New York Times'', April 19, 1981 (A review of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{C-SPAN|1009364}} *"[https://quillandquire.com/authors/the-invisible-canadian/ The invisible Canadian]". Quill & Quire. An article about Clark Blaise.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaise, Clark}} Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:Canadian male novelists Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:American emigrants to Canada Category:Writers from San Francisco Category:Writers from Fargo, North Dakota Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Category:International Writing Program alumni Category:20th-century Canadian novelists Category:20th-century Canadian male writers Category:Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners

Clark Blaise

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