Thomas King, Medicin River
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THOMAS KING – WRITER
Thomas King is a multi-talented and accomplished writer who expresses concerns of Aboriginal people through literature. He was born in 1943 in Sacramento California to a Cherokee father and a German and Greek mother and grew up in Sacramento.
In 1980, King moved to Canada with his nine-year old son and lived in Alberta for about ten years. He returned briefly to the United States in 1986 to receive his PhD in English Literature at the University of Utah, but is now a Canadian citizen and resides in Guelph, Ontario.
King is a writer by trade, but has also had an extensive teaching career. He worked as a Professor of Native Studies at the University of Lethbridge, in Alberta, and was also the Chair of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. He currently teaches Native literature and creative writing at the University of Guelph in southern Ontario.
King has written three novels; Medicine River (1990), which was made into a CBC-TV movie, Green Grass, Running Water (1992), and Truth and Bright Water (1997). Green Grass, Running Water was nominated for the Governor Generals award for literature in 1992. He received a second nomination for the same award the following year for his childrens book A Coyote Columbus Story. King published a collection of his short stories called, One Good Story, That One, in 1993. His essays, poems and other writings have appeared in many magazines, including the “The Hungry Mind Review”, and “World Literature in English”. King has also edited collections of Native short stories for various publications across the country and created a book of photographs of Aboriginal artists.
Thomas Kings career does not stop with teaching, writing, and editing as he is also a radio personality. You may have heard him on the twice-weekly CBC radio comedy serial “Dead Dog Cafй”. He writes, creates and co-stars in this series that pokes fun at current Aboriginal affairs from an Aboriginal perspective.