Thomas King

  Thomas King was born in 1943 to a Cherokee father and a mother of Greek and German descent. King grew up in Northern California, received his Ph. D. in English literature at the University of Utah, and worked for a number of years at the University of Minnesota as Chair of their American Indian Studies program. He is, however, a Canadian citizen and has spent much of his adult life in Canada. For ten years, he was a Professor of Native Studies at the University of Lethbridge and he is currently a professor at the University of Guelph where he teaches Native literature and Creative Writing.

   Thomas King's creative and critical writing has been widely published; articles, stories, and poems of his have appeared in many journals, including World Literature Written in English, The Hungry Mind Review, and the Journal of American Folklore. He has also edited a book entitled The Native in Literature (1987) and a special issue of Canadian Fiction Magazine (1988) devoted to short fiction by Canadian Native writers. Thomas King's first novel, Medicine River, was published in 1990 and was later turned into a television movie of the same name which starred Graham Greene and Tom Jackson. Also published in 1990 was All My Relations, an anthology of contemporary Canadian Native literature that was edited by King and which also included an introduction by him and his story, "The One About Coyote Going West." In 1992, Douglas & McIntyre published A Coyote Columbus Story, King's first book for children, and it was nominated for a Governor General's Award later that year. In 1993, King received his second nomination for a Governor General's Award for his brilliant novel Green Grass, Running Water. That year was also marked by the publication of One Good Story, That One, a collection of ten of King's short stories, including "The One About Coyote Going West," "Borders," and "Joe the Painter and the Deer Island Massacre." "Joe the Painter" was later dramatized for radio while "Borders" was adapted for television as part of the CBC series "Four Directions," for which King served as Story Editor during 1993-1994.

      In 1998, King published Coyote Sings to the Moon, a work of children’s fiction, followed by the novel Truth and Bright Water in 1999.  In 2002, King published his first mystery novel, DreadfulWater Shows Up, under the pen-name Heartly Goodweather.  In 2003, he was chosen to give the prestigious annual Massey Lectures, which were published simultaneously as The Truth About Stories.  King is the first Native scholar to receive this honour.  King’s frequently taught novel Green Grass, Running Water gained more public attention in 2004, when it was chosen for CBC’s annual Canada Reads competition, in which the book was championed by former Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray.  In 2005, King published A Short History Of Indians in Canada: Stories, a collection of his most recent short stories.  This was followed in 2006 with his second crime novel, The Red Power Murders: A DreafulWater Mystery.  King has also created and written a popular serial for CBC Radio entitled "The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour," and has been accepted into the Order of Canada, the highest civilian honour for a Canadian citizen.

 Written by Paul Martin in 1997, updated by Scott Kirby and Paul Martin in 2007.

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