Esi Edugyan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Esi Edugyan
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Edugyan reading at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival in 2018
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| Born | 1978 (age 46–47) Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | University of Victoria (BA) Johns Hopkins University (MA) |
| Period | 2004–present |
| Notable works | Half-Blood Blues (2011); Washington Black (2018) |
| Notable awards | Scotiabank Giller Prize 2011 Half-Blood Blues Anisfield-Wolf Book Award 2012 Half-Blood Blues Scotiabank Giller Prize 2018 Washington Black |
| Spouse | Steven Price |
| Children | 2 |
Esi Edugyan (born in 1978) is a Canadian writer. She is famous for her novels. Esi has won the Giller Prize twice. This is one of Canada's biggest literary awards. She won for her books Half-Blood Blues (2011) and Washington Black (2018).
Contents
About Esi Edugyan
Esi Edugyan was born and grew up in Calgary, Alberta. Her parents came from Ghana. She loved writing from a young age.
She studied creative writing at the University of Victoria. There, a writer named Jack Hodgins helped guide her. She also earned a master's degree from Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars.
Her First Books
Esi's first novel was The Second Life of Samuel Tyne. It came out in 2004. She was only 24 years old when it was published. This book was chosen as a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.
After her first book, Esi found it hard to get her next story published. She spent some time living in Stuttgart, Germany. This trip gave her an idea for a new book. She decided to write Half-Blood Blues.
Half-Blood Blues
Half-Blood Blues tells the story of Hieronymus Falk. He is a young mixed-race jazz musician. His band plays in Berlin between the World Wars. The band includes African Americans, a German Jew, and a wealthy German.
During this time, Hieronymus is taken by the Nazis. They targeted people of mixed race. Some of his bandmates escape to Paris when World War II starts. They meet again years later in Europe.
This novel was published in 2011. It was chosen for many major awards. These included the Man Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. On November 8, 2011, Esi won the Giller Prize for this book. She also received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 2012.
Other Works
In 2014, Esi published her first non-fiction book. It was called Dreaming of Elsewhere: Observations on Home. She also worked as a writer-in-residence. This means she was a visiting writer at Athabasca University in 2016.
Her third novel, Washington Black, came out in 2018. This book also won the Giller Prize in November 2018. This made Esi only the third writer to win the award twice! Washington Black was also a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.
In 2019, Esi's writing was included in an important book. It was called New Daughters of Africa. In 2021, she gave six lectures for CBC Radio. These talks were later published as a book. It was titled Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling.
Esi was chosen to lead the jury for the 2023 Booker Prize. This is another very important book award.
Her Family Life
Esi Edugyan lives in Victoria, British Columbia. She is married to Steven Price. He is also a novelist and poet. They met when they were both students at the University of Victoria. They have two children. Their first child was born in 2011, and their second in 2014.
Books by Esi Edugyan
- The Second Life of Samuel Tyne (2004)
- Half-Blood Blues (2011)
- Dreaming of Elsewhere: Observations on Home (2014)
- Washington Black (2018)
