U of G professor and author nominated for book “An Inconvenient Indian”
University of Guelph’s English professor emeritus Thomas King, broadcaster, Massey lecturer and author of “The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America” has been announced as a nominee for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
The Writers’ Trust of Canada released the list of nominations on Sept. 18. The Trust presents ten annual prizes to authors at various stages in their careers, the Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust Prize for Nonfiction being worth the most.
The $60,000 prize will be awarded at a ceremony hosted by Shelagh Rogers on Oct. 21, with finalists receiving $5,000.
In his book, “The Inconvenient Indian,” Thomas King shares the story of Canada and its relationship with its native people. The book is part history, and partly the result of a lifetime of reflection on native identity and his own heritage.
“We get in the way,” King told the CBC in a Studio Q interview, “especially for the movers and shakers in North America, because one of the main issues in native country is native land.”
King stresses the impact of the entertainment industry in North America with shaping the identity of Aboriginal people, describing the effect as being “frozen…in place and in time.” He outlines the clichés and stereotypes that exist in the North American mind and how this creates a barrier when addressing the control of and rights to land.
Using his natural gifts of humor and proficient storytelling, King journeys through history and exposes the truth of North America’s indigenous people, forcing the reader to re-examine what they have been taught and face the reality of what has been endured by the native people of North America.
“The Inconvenient Indian is less an indictment than a reassurance that we can create equality and harmony,” said Richard Wagamese in a review for the Globe and Mail.
Born in Sacramento, California, King is of Cherokee, Greek and German-American descent. He studied at Chico State University, where he received his bachelor and master’s degrees, and then at the University of Utah, where he received his PhD. He has been a professor at the University of Guelph since 1995.
In 2003, King was the first aboriginal person to be invited to give the Massey Lectures, which were later published as “The Truth About Stories” and won him the Trillium Book Award, Ontario’s premiere prize for literary excellence.
The lectures were broadcast on CBC’s radio program “Ideas,” and were presented for nine days throughout five provinces. In these lectures King looked at the breadth and depth of Native experience and imagination.
Thomas King has been twice nominated for the Governor General’s Award, once for “A Coyote Columbus Story” and again for “Green Grass, Running Water,” the latter of which was also chosen for the inclusion in Canada Reads 2004. His book “A Short History of Indians in Canada” also won the 2006 McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award.
King also created and starred in “Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour,” for which he has won the Aboriginal Media Arts Radio Award.
“When you have this long history of injustice, at some point that bill’s going to have to be paid,” said King in the studio Q interview. “At some point you’re going to have to stop and say, okay, we gotta fix this.”
See next week’s issue for an in-depth interview with the author.