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Alistair MacLeod

アリステア・マクレオド

Arisutea Makureodo

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1936-07-20 （North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada）
Died
2014-04-20 （Windsor, Ontario, Canada） age 77
Nationality
Canadian
Languages
English
Religion
Catholic

Career

Occupations
novelist, short story writer, professor
Active Years
1968-2014
Affiliations
University of Windsor
Memberships
Royal Society of Canada
Influenced By
Thomas Hardy
Influenced
Subsequent generations of Canadian short story writers and novelists, Alexander MacLeod (son, writer)

Education

Nova Scotia Teachers College
Degree: Teaching qualification
Period: 1956–1957
Year of Graduation: 1957
Country: Canada
Attended the Truro campus; taught on Port Hood Island after graduation.
St. Francis Xavier University
English
Degree: BA, B.Ed
Period: 1957–1960
Year of Graduation: 1960
Country: Canada
Earned BA and B.Ed degrees.
University of New Brunswick
English
Degree: MA
Period: 1960–1961
Year of Graduation: 1961
Country: Canada
Completed an MA in English.
University of Notre Dame
English literature
Degree: PhD
Period: 1961–1968
Year of Graduation: 1968
Country: United States
Wrote a doctoral dissertation on Thomas Hardy; studied under Frank O'Malley, focusing on creative writing.

Awards

International Dublin Literary Award
2001
Work: No Great Mischief
Organization: International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Result: 受賞
Trillium Book Award
2000
Work: No Great Mischief
Organization: Trillium Book Award
Result: 受賞
Thomas Head Raddall Award
2000
Work: No Great Mischief
Organization: Thomas Head Raddall Award
Result: 受賞
Portia White Prize
2001
Organization: Province of Nova Scotia
Result: 受賞
Lannan Literary Award
2003
Category: フィクション
Organization: Lannan Foundation
Result: 受賞
PEN/Malamud Award
2009
Category: 短編文学
Organization: PEN/Faulkner Foundation
Result: 受賞
Officer of the Order of Canada
2008
Organization: Government of Canada
Result: 叙位
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
2008
Organization: Royal Society of Canada
Result: 選出
Order of Nova Scotia
2015
Organization: Province of Nova Scotia
Result: 受賞（追贈）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

No Great Mischief

1999 Historical fiction / Family saga 240 pages

No Great Mischief tells the story of the MacDonald clan from Scotland to Cape Breton, exploring family ties, exile, labour, and memory through a multi-generational narrative.

family bondsmigration and homelandmemory and lossnature and labour

The Lost Salt Gift of Blood

1976 Short story collection / Realism 160 pages

A collection of stories set in Cape Breton about fishermen, miners and descendants of immigrants, dealing with homeland, tradition and intergenerational conflict.

regional identityoral traditionloss and renewal

As Birds Bring Forth the Sun and Other Stories

1986 Short story collection 192 pages

A mature collection of short stories that sensitively explores family, faith, and relationships to sea and land.

faithfamily historysea and labour

Island: The Collected Stories

2000 Collected short stories 320 pages

Collected volume combining previous short story collections with two new stories, encompassing MacLeod's Cape Breton narrative world.

island identityimmigration historymemory
Adaptations
  • [Opera] Island (opera based on a short story) / Christopher Donison (作曲者／演奏作品)

Bibliography

  • The Lost Salt Gift of Blood (1976)
  • As Birds Bring Forth the Sun and Other Stories (1986)
  • No Great Mischief (1999)
  • Island: The Collected Stories (2000)
  • Remembrance (chapbook, 2012)

Adaptations

  • Documentary film 'Reading Alistair MacLeod' (2005)

Translations of Works

  • His books have been translated into 17 languages

Style & Themes

Literary Style
lyrical and precise proseconcise, direct language rooted in oral traditioncarefully crafted, sentence-focused writing
Recurring Motifs
home/island as spacefamily and kinship tiesimmigrant memory (Scottish heritage)sea, mines, labour

Health

  • stroke
    2014年1月（発症）
    Suffered a stroke in January 2014 and died in April 2014.

Legacy

Renowned for dense, lyric short stories and a celebrated novel set on Cape Breton Island, MacLeod is regarded as a master of the short story in Canadian literature. No Great Mischief achieved broad acclaim and international recognition.

Academic Societies

  • Royal Society of Canada

Archives

  • Alistair MacLeod fonds (held at Library and Archives Canada)

In Popular Culture

  • No Great Mischief was voted Atlantic Canada's greatest book in 2009

Quotes

  • “I write a single sentence at a time, and then I read it aloud.”
    Source: Interview (author's statement)
  • “I think we should realize that 'story' is much older than literacy... I like to give the impression that I am telling the story rather than writing the story.”
    Source: Statement (quoted)

Trivia

  • He often wrote in a cliff-top cabin on the MacLeod homestead in Dunvegan during summers.
  • Had seven children (one died in infancy).
  • Works translated into 17 languages.
  • Subject of a National Film Board documentary in 2005.