Alistair was born in 1936 at
North
Battleford, Saskatchewan, in Canada. From the age of ten, he was brought up on the
family farm in Cape Breton. He was awarded a BA and B. Ed from St. Francis
Xavier University in 1960, an MA from the University of New Brunswick in 1961,
and a PhD from Notre Dame University in 1968. Alistair worked as a coal miner
during his student years. He taught English at the University of Indiana, until
he accepted his long-running post at the University of Windsor, Ontario, where
he was a professor of English and taught creative writing. He specialises in
British literature of the nineteenth century. He visits Cape Breton every
summer, the setting of many of his short stories.
Alistair
MacLeod is not very prolific, and takes a long time to write (his novel, “No
Great Mischief”, published in 1999, took 13 years to write). However, this slow
pace has produced works of great quality, if not quantity. His first collection
of stories, “The Lost Salt
Gift of Blood” was published in 1976. The second collection, “As Birds
bring forth the Sun”, was published in 1986. In 2000, following the success
of “No Great Mischief”, all his short stories were collected in a single volume
called “Island”.
Christopher Donison is in the process of turning the title story from “Island”
into an opera. “No Great Mischief” won the Trillium Award and the International
IMPAC Literary Award in 2001, the world’s biggest literary award in terms of
prize money. 2004 saw the publication of another Cape Breton story in
hardcover, “To
Every Thing There is a Season”.
No
Great Mischief – read Kevin Patrick Mahoney’s review of the novel
Read
an extract from "No Great Mischief"
The
Tuning of Perfection
– Alistair MacLeod talks to
Craig McDonald just after winning the IMPAC Award
Lannan Readings
& Conversations – Alistair MacLeod performs a reading, and talks to
Shelagh Rogers
Author
Alistair MacLeod on the ties that bind us – Alistair MacLeod talks to Scott
McRae
The
Windsor ReView – Alistair MacLeod talks about working on The Windsor ReView
Accomplished author
visits General Amherst – features Alistair MacLeod giving students advice
about writing
How
Mischief made the stage – “The Ottawa Citizen” reports on the “No Great
Mischief” stage play
Play
traces the stormy past of a Cape Breton clan – “The Vancouver Sun” also
reports on the stage play, and talks to Alistair MacLeod about it
MacLeod’s campsite
– is run by the MacLeod family, and has some good photos of Cape Breton
Scotland in Canadian Literature: an Examination of
Alistair MacLeod’s Fiction – an essay by Ingibjorg Agustsdottir
Boundedness:
Islandness and Identity in Alistair MacLeod’s “Island” and Wayne Johnston’s
“The Colony of Unrequited Dreams” – a paper by Laurie Brinklow
Edinburgh Review
Issue 113 covered Alistair MacLeod, with the following articles: “Alistair
Macleod’s dogs” by Mark Anderson, who then goes on to interview Alistair
MacLeod, “Death in Canada: Alistair MacLeod and the misfortunes of ethnicity”
by Tom Nairn
Regionalism
in the fiction of Alistair MacLeod, Alden Nowlan, and David Adams Richards
– a dissertation by Audrey (Mimi) Cormier
“Sounds
in the Empty Spaces of History”: The Highland Clearances in Neil Gunn’s
“Highland River” and Alistair MacLeod’s “The Road to Rankin’s Point” –
Christopher Gittings’ essay in “Studies in Canadian Literature”
Elegy
and Mourning in Alistair MacLeod’s “The Boat” – Christian Riegel’s essay
from “Studies in Short Fiction”, Summer 1998.
Writing
Region across the border: two stories of Breece Pancake and Alistair MacLeod
– David Stevens’ essay from “Studies in Short Fiction”, Spring 1996.
