Wayne Grady (author) facts for kids

Wayne Grady is a Canadian writer, editor, and translator. He was born in 1948 in Windsor, Ontario. He has written many nonfiction books and translated over a dozen novels from French into English. He has also edited many collections of stories and nonfiction works. Today, he teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia.

Wayne Grady's Achievements

Wayne Grady has won several important awards for his work.

Awards for Translation

• In 1989, he won the Governor General's Award for French to English translation. This was for his translation of On the Eighth Day, a novel by Antonine Maillet.
• He also received the John Glassco Translation Prize. This award was for his translation of Maillet's book Christopher Cartier of Hazelnut.

Awards for Writing

• In 2008, Grady won the National Outdoor Book Award. This was in the Nature and the Environment category. He won for his book The Great Lakes: The Natural History of a Changing Region.

Exploring Nature and History in Books

Wayne Grady writes about many interesting topics, from nature to history.

Books About Nature

• His book Bringing Back the Dodo (published in 2006) is a collection of essays. These essays explore our relationship with the natural world. They also discuss how humans have affected the planet and led to the extinction of some animals.
• The Great Lakes: A Natural History of a Changing Region (2007) explores the history and changes of the Great Lakes.

Stories from History

• His first novel, Emancipation Day, was published in 2013. It tells the story of a marriage during the Second World War. The novel is about a Black man who is pretending to be white. His white wife does not know about his past.
• Wayne Grady was inspired to write Emancipation Day by his own family history. He discovered that his great-grandfather was an African American who moved from the United States.
• Emancipation Day was considered for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
• In 2014, Emancipation Day won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award.
• His English translation of Louis Hamelin's novel La Constellation du Lynx, called October 1970, was also considered for the Giller Prize in 2013.

Personal Life

Wayne Grady is married to another writer, Merilyn Simonds. They have also written a book together called Breakfast at the Exit Cafe: A Journey Through America.

Books by Wayne Grady

• The Dinosaur Project: The Story of the Greatest Dinosaur Expedition Ever Mounted (1993)
• Toronto the Wild: Field Notes of an Urban Naturalist (1995)
• Vulture: Nature's Ghastly Gourmet (1997)
• The Quiet Limit of the World: A Journey to the North Pole to Investigate Global Warming (1997)
• Chasing the Chinook: On the Trail of Canadian Words and Culture (1998)
• Tree: A Life Story (2004, co-authored with David Suzuki)
• Bringing Back the Dodo (2006)
• The Great Lakes: A Natural History of a Changing Region (2007)
• Breakfast at the Exit Cafe: A Journey Through America (2010, co-authored with Merilyn Simonds)
• Emancipation Day (2013)