Madeline Sonik (born May 12, 1960) is a Canadian author.

Biography

Madeline Sonik was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, May 12, 1960. She was of mixed

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

parentage. Sonik was educated at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

, Canada, and at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

, where she earned a doctorate for a thesis that explored the application of

Jungian Analytical psychology ( de , Analytische Psychologie, sometimes translated as analytic psychology and referred to as Jungian analysis) is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" ...

principles to the creative writing process. She has taught creative writing courses in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, and from 2008-2010 was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Writing at the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...

. In spring 2015, she served as writer-in-residence at the

University of Windsor , mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge , established = , academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada , former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963) , type = Public universi ...

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

. Her publications include a novel, a short story collection, a children's book, a poetry collection, and a volume of personal essays. In addition, she has coedited three Canadian anthologies and has won many awards for her nonfiction, including the Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction (2006). Her novel ''Arms'' was described by ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' as a "verbal heartache, a bravura performance of language and perverse imagination". Sonik currently resides in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...

, where she teaches in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria.

Awards and honours

Sonik was among 10 authors longlisted for the 2012 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. The nomination was for ''Afflictions & Departures'', which illustrates an experimental nonfiction genre Sonik has termed a "fracture." "A fracture is a series of short, linked memoir pieces that uses techniques of hard-boiled journalism and literary fiction, and self-consciously disrupts or fractures conceptions of linear time." The book was also a shortlisted nominee for the 2012

Charles Taylor Prize The RBC Taylor Prize (2000–2020), formerly known as the Charles Taylor Prize, is a Canadian literary award, presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation to the best Canadian work of literary non-fiction. It is named for Charles P. B. Taylor, a ...

. It won the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize 2012.
.

Bibliography

*''Fresh Blood: New Canadian Gothic Fiction''., ed. Winnipeg: Turnstone, 1998. *''Drying the Bones.'' Madeira Park, BC: Nightwood Editions, 2000. *''Entering the Landscape''., ed. Ottawa: Oberon, 2001. *''Arms.'' Madeira Park, BC: Nightwood Editions, 2002. *''Belinda and the Dustbunnys.'' Vancouver: Hodgepog, 2003. *''When I Was a Child: Stories for Grownups and Children''., ed. Ottawa: Oberon, 2003. *''Stone Sightings.'' Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2008. *''Afflictions & Departures.'' Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2011. *''Fontainebleau''. Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonik, Madeline 1960 births Living people 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian poets American emigrants to Canada Canadian women novelists Canadian women poets Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian people of English descent Canadian people of Russian descent Writers from Detroit Writers from Victoria, British Columbia University of Western Ontario alumni University of British Columbia alumni Canadian women short story writers 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Canadian short story writers Canadian women non-fiction writers