Thomas King (novelist) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Thomas King CC
King in 2008
Born	(1943-04-24) April 24, 1943 (age 82) Roseville, California, US
Pen name	Hartley GoodWeather
Occupation	Writer presenter activist academic
Citizenship	United States, Canada
Period	1980s–present (as writer)
Genre	Postmodern, trickster novel; comedy and drama script
Subject	First Nations
Notable works	Medicine River; Green Grass, Running Water; The Truth About Stories
Notable awards	Order of Canada, 2004
Children	3

Thomas King is a well-known American-born Canadian writer and TV presenter. He often writes about First Nations people and their experiences. He was born on April 24, 1943.

Early Life and Education

Thomas Hunt King was born in Roseville, California. He has said that he is of Cherokee, Greek, and German background. He shared this with the CBC in 2020. However, some groups have questioned his Cherokee ancestry.

King has explained that his father left the family when he and his brother were very young. Their mother raised them almost entirely. In his book The Truth About Stories (2003), King wrote that after his father passed away, he and his brother found out their father had two other families. None of these families knew about the others.

As a child, King went to school in Roseville, California. He attended both private Catholic and public high schools. After leaving Sacramento State University, he joined the US Navy for a short time. He left the Navy due to a knee injury. After that, King worked many different jobs. He was an ambulance driver, a bank teller, and a photojournalist in New Zealand for three years.

King later earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Chico State University in California. He then moved to Utah. There, he worked as a counselor for American Indian students. He also completed a PhD in English at the University of Utah. His master's thesis in 1971 was about film studies. His PhD paper in 1986 focused on Native American studies. It was one of the first works to look at oral storytelling as a form of literature. Around this time, King became very interested in American Indian oral traditions and storytelling.

Teaching and Academia

In 1980, Thomas King moved to Canada. He began teaching Native studies at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. This was in the early 1980s. He also taught in the American Indian studies department at the University of Minnesota. As of 2020, King was listed as a retired professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario. He is recognized as a Professor Emeritus there.

Speaking Out for Rights

Thomas King has often spoken out about government policies. He has criticized both the United States and Canadian governments. He is concerned about the future and rights of Indigenous peoples in North America. He worries that Indigenous culture and land will continue to be taken away. He fears there will be nothing left for them.

In his 2013 book, The Inconvenient Indian, King wrote about this issue. He stated, "The issue has always been land. It will always be land, until there isn't a square foot of land left in North America that is controlled by Native people."

King also talks about rules for Indigenous status. He noted that in the 1800s, laws in the US and Canada removed Indigenous status from people who graduated from university or joined the army. King has also worked to show how some laws make it hard to claim Indigenous status. Examples include the US Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990. Another is Canada's 1985 Bill C-31. This bill changed the Indian Act in 1985. It allowed Indigenous women and their children to get their status back. Before, the Act took away a woman's status if she married a non-status man. King believes that even though this change helped women, it might threaten the status of future generations.

Thomas King's Books and Stories

Thomas King has been writing books for adults and children since the 1980s. He has also written collections of stories. Some of his well-known works include A Coyote Columbus Story (1992). Another is Green Grass, Running Water (1993). Both of these books were nominated for a Governor General's Award. A Coyote Columbus Story was nominated for children's literature. Green Grass, Running Water was nominated for fiction.

His book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (2012) won the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize. King's novel, Indians on Vacation (2020), won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 2021.

In 2003, King was chosen to give the Massey Lectures. These talks were called The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. King was the first Massey lecturer of Indigenous descent. In his lectures, King explored the Indigenous experience. He looked at oral stories, literature, history, religion, and politics. He also examined popular culture and social protest. He did this to help people understand North America's relationship with its Indigenous peoples.

King's writing style mixes traditional Western storytelling with oral storytelling. He writes in a way that feels like a conversation. For example, in Green Grass, Running Water, the narrator sometimes argues with the characters. In The Truth About Stories, King talks to the reader as if they are having a chat. King uses many funny stories and anecdotes. He keeps a serious message while doing this. His style has been compared to the trickster legends in Native American culture.

Other Creative Work

In the 1990s, Thomas King worked as a story editor for Four Directions. This was a CBC Television drama series about First Nations. He also wrote a TV script called "Borders." This was based on his own short story.

From 1997 to 2000, King wrote and acted in a CBC radio show. It was called The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour. The show was about a made-up town and a radio program. Three First Nations characters hosted it. Parts of the show came from his novel, Green Grass, Running Water. The radio show was a funny look at politics and society. It used dark humor and made fun of stereotypes.

In July 2007, King directed his first short film. It was called I'm Not the Indian You Had in Mind, and he also wrote it. His book of shorter poems, 77 Fragments of Familiar Ruin, includes many poems about Indigenous themes. In 2020, his book The Inconvenient Indian was made into a documentary film. The film is also called Inconvenient Indian.

Personal Life

Thomas King's partner is Helen Hoy. She is a retired professor of English and Women's Studies at the University of Guelph. She wrote a book called How Should I Read These? Native Women Writers in Canada (2001). Thomas King has three children: Christian (born 1971), Benjamin (born 1985), and Elizabeth (born 1988). The couple lives in Guelph, Ontario.

Works

Books

• Medicine River (Viking Canada, 1990), novel
• A Coyote Columbus Story (Douglas & McIntyre, 1992), illustrated by William Kent Monkman
• Green Grass, Running Water (Houghton Mifflin, 1993), novel featuring Coyote,
• One Good Story, That One (1993), stories
• Borders (1993)
• Coyote Sings to the Moon (1998), illus. Johnny Wales
• Truth and Bright Water (HarperFlamingo Canada, 1999)
• The Truth About Stories (House of Anansi Press, 2003); US edition The Truth About Stories: a native narrative (U. of Minnesota Press, 2005) – Massey Lectures
• Coyote's New Suit (2004), illus. Johnny Wales
• A Short History of Indians in Canada (HarperCollins, 2005), stories
• A Coyote Solstice Tale (Groundwood Books, 2009), illus. Gary Clement
• The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (Doubleday Canada, 2012)
• The Back of the Turtle (Doubleday, 2014)
• 77 Fragments of Familiar Ruin (2019) - Poems
• Indians on Vacation (2020)
• Sufferance (2021)

DreadfulWater Mysteries

• Dreadful Water Shows Up (2002), published under the pen name Hartley GoodWeather (reprinted 2017 as DreadfulWater, as author Thomas King)
• The Red Power Murders (2006), as Hartley GoodWeather (reprinted 2017, as author Thomas King )
• Cold Skies (2018)
• A Matter of Malice (2019)
• Obsidian (2020)
• Deep House (2022)
• Double Eagle (2023)
• Black Ice (2024)

As editor

• The Native in Literature (1987)
• An Anthology of Short Fiction by Native Writers in Canada (1988)
• All My Relations: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Native Fiction (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990)

Selected Short Stories

• "Coyote and the Enemy Aliens" (HarperCollins, 2012), ebook,

Scripts

• Four Directions (CBC Television, 1996), drama anthology series
• The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour (CBC Radio, 1997 to 2000) and its sequels (2002 and 2006)
• I'm Not The Indian You Had In Mind, 2007, short film also directed by King

Awards and Special Recognition

Literary Awards

• 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.
• Won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 2021 for Indians on Vacation.
• Green Grass, Running Water was chosen for Canada Reads in 2004. It was supported by then-Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray. In 2015, his non-fiction book The Inconvenient Indian was championed by activist Craig Kielburger.
• 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. It was also a finalist for other awards.
• The Back of the Turtle won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction in 2014.
• Indians on Vacation was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction in 2020.

Honors

• In 2004, King was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
• In November 2020, King was named a Companion of the Order of Canada. This honor recognized his lasting work. It was for helping to preserve and recognize Indigenous culture. He is seen as one of North America’s most celebrated writers.

Other Recognition

• In 2003, he was chosen to give the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Massey Lectures. The series was called The Truth About Stories. It was published as a book that same year.

See also

• List of Indigenous writers of the Americas
• Native American studies