Thomas King
Thomas King was born in Sacramento, California, United States on April 24th, 1943 and is the Novelist. At the age of 81, Thomas King biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Thomas King (born 1943) is an American-Canadian writer and broadcaster who most often writes about North America's First Nations.
Early life and education
Thomas King, a California native who was born in Roseville, California, has a German and Greek descent from his mother, as well as unconfirmed and not tribally recognized Cherokee descent from his father. His father left the family when the boys were young, and they were almost entirely raised by their mother. King tells his father and his brother discovered two other families after their father's death, none of whom knew about the third.
As an infant, King attended grammar school in Roseville, California, as well as private Catholic and public high schools. After flunking out of Sacramento State University, he served in the US Navy for a short period of time before receiving a medical discharge for a knee injury. Following this, King served in various capacities, including as an ambulance driver, bankteller, and photojournalist in New Zealand for three years.
King earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Chico State University in California. He moved to Utah, where he served as a mentor for American Indian students before completing a degree in English at the University of Utah. His 1971 MA thesis was on film research. His PhD dissertation, which was one of the first attempts to explore the oral storytelling tradition as literature, was published in 1986. Around this time, the King became interested in American Indian oral traditions and storytelling. In 1980, he left the reservation.
King taught Native studies at the University of Lethbridge (Alberta) in the early 1980s after emigring to Canada in 1980. He has also worked as a faculty member of the University of Minnesota's American Indian studies department. He is now an English professor at the University of Guelph (Ontario) and lives in Guelph.
The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative, a King, was chosen to address the 2003 Massey Lectures. King was the first Massey lecturer to announce descent by himself. In order to make sense of North America's relationship with its aboriginal peoples, King investigated the Native experience in oral stories, literature, history, and politics, popular culture, and social protest.
Personal life
Helen Hoy, a professor emerita of English and Women's Studies at the University of Guelph, School of English and Theatre Studies, is his partner. How Should I Read These? She has written a study titled How Can I Read These? (2001) Native Women Writers in Canada (2001). Christian (born 1971), Benjamin (born 1985), and Elizabeth (born 1988). The couple lives in Guelph, Ontario.
As of 2020, King was listed as Professor (resigned), Professor Emeritus, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph, according to the University of Guelph.
King "identifies as being of Cherokee and Greek ancestry," a news story in November 2020 said.
Awards and recognition
- Nominated for a Governor General's Award in 1992 for A Coyote Columbus Story.
- Nominated for a Governor General's Award in 1993 for Green Grass, Running Water.
- Selected in 2003 to give the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Massey Lectures. The series, entitled The Truth About Stories, was published that year by the House of Anansi Press.
- Green Grass, Running Water was chosen for the inclusion in the 2004 edition of Canada Reads, and championed by then-Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray. In the 2015 edition of Canada Reads, his non-fiction book The Inconvenient Indian was defended by activist Craig Kielburger.
- In 2004, King was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
- A Short History of Indians in Canada won the 2006 McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award.
- The Inconvenient Indian won the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize, and was a finalist for the 2013 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the 2014 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature.
- The Back of the Turtle won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2014 Governor General's Awards.
- Indians on Vacation was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2020 Governor General's Awards.
- In November 2020, King was named a Companion of the Order of Canada. He had been named a Member of the Order of Canada six years earlier. The naming was because of King's "enduring contributions to the preservation and recognition of indigenous culture, as one of North America’s most acclaimed literary figures".
- Won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 2021 for Indians on Vacation