Internationally Acclaimed Author Jane Urquhart appointed UCD Craig Dobbin Professor in Canadian Studies for 2017/18
Bestselling Canadian author Jane Urquhart has been appointed as UCD Craig Dobbin Professor in Canadian Studies at University College Dublin for 2017/18.
Her most recent novel, The Night Stages, was released in 2015 and uses County Kerry as a central location. Urquhart has been a regular visitor to Ireland since the 1990s, using an Irish cottage in Kerry’s MacGillycuddy’s Reeks as a writing retreat. In total, she has authored eight internationally acclaimed novels, among them The Whirlpool (winner, Le prix du meilleur livre étranger, France); Away (winner, Trillium Award, Canada); The Underpainter, (winner, Governor General’s Award, Canada; finalist, The Orange Prize, UK); and The Stone Carvers, (finalist, The Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award, Canada; finalist, Booker Prize, UK). Away set a Canadian record by remaining on top of The Globe and Mail’s bestseller list for 132 weeks.
Also a poet, Urquhart has written four books of verse, a collection of short fiction and a biography of Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. She was editor of the Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories, a collection of the finest Canadian work spanning more than 100 years. Her writing has been translated into several foreign languages.
Urquhart is an Officer of the Order of Canada and Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France. Urquhart has received the Marian Engel Award and the Harbourfront Festival Prize. In 2016, she published A Number of Things; Stories of Canada told through 50 Objects, which was commissioned by publisher HarperCollins to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary.
She has also been writer-in-residence at University of Toronto, University of Ottawa and University of Guelph. Urquhart has taught creative writing at each of these institutions and is Adjunct Professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of Toronto.
Dr Paul Halferty, Director of the UCD Centre for Canadian Studies, notes “The work of Jane Urquhart has been celebrated across the world. We can’t wait to see our students thrive under her guidance and expertise, and the many contributions she will make to the UCD community”.
For further information, visit the UCD Centre for Canadian Studies website – click here and/or contact Dr Paul Halferty, Director of the UCD Centre for Canadian Studies – email: paul.halferty@ucd.ie