Roy MacSkimming is a Canadian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while othe ...

, non-fiction writer and cultural policy consultant. Born in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

and educated at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

, MacSkimming broke into book publishing in 1964 at Clarke, Irwin and later co-founded New Press, one of Canada's leading small presses of the 1970s. He has been books editor and literary columnist at ''

The Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'', and has contributed to a number of newspapers and periodicals, including '' The Globe and Mail'', ''

The Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Ca ...

'', ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...

'' and ''

Saturday Night Saturday Night may refer to: Film, television and theatre Film * ''Saturday Night'' (1922 film), a 1922 film directed by Cecil B. DeMille * ''Saturday Nights'' (film), a 1933 Swedish film directed by Schamyl Bauman * ''Saturday Night'' (1950 fil ...

''. MacSkimming has served as publishing officer with the

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal in ...

, and policy director of the Association of Canadian Publishers. MacSkimming has written two novels with European settings: ''Formentera'' (1972), set in the Balearic Islands, and ''Out of Love'' (1993), set in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

and

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...

. He has also written ''Gordie: A Hockey Legend'' (1994), an

unauthorized biography An unauthorized biography is a biography written without the subject's permission or input. The term is usually restricted to biographies written within the subject's lifetime or shortly after their death; as such, it is not applied to biographi ...

Gordie Howe Gordon Howe (March 31, 1928 – June 10, 2016) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. From 1946 to 1980, he played 26 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and six seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA); his first 25 seaso ...

; and ''Cold War'' (1996), a reassessment of the 1972 Canada-Soviet hockey series. MacSkimming draws on his professional lifetime in and around the publishing industry in ''The Perilous Trade: Publishing Canada's Writers'' (2003).Medley, Mark (2010)
Picturing Canada
, ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', May 27, 2010, retrieved 2010-10-31 The title was nominated for the National Business Book Award, and was a ''Globe and Mail'' Notable Book of the Year. It was reissued by McClelland & Stewart in an updated paperback edition in 2007. MacSkimming's third novel, ''Macdonald'', based on the final days of Canada's founding prime minister Sir

John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...

, was published in 2007.Required Reading
, ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The newsp ...

'', September 30, 2007, retrieved 2010-10-31 His most recent novel is ''Laurier in Love'' (2010), based on the tangled love life of Canadian prime minister Sir

Wilfrid Laurier Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minis ...

. MacSkimming lives near

Perth, Ontario Perth is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Tay River, southwest of Ottawa, and is the seat of Lanark County. History The town was established as a military settlement in 1816, shortly after the War of 1812. The settleme ...

Bibliography

Fiction

Poetry

*''Shoot Low, Sheriff, They're Riding Shetland Ponies'' (with William Hawkins). Independent, 1964A 56-page self-stapled

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, le ...

. See "poetry and words" at www.wmhawkins.com.

Novels

*''Formentera.'' Toronto: New Press, 1972 *''Out of Love.'' Dunvegan, ON: Cormorant Books, 1993 *''Macdonald.'' Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2007 *''Laurier in Love.'' Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2010

Non-Fiction

*''On Your Own Again'' Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1992. (with Keith Anderson) *''Gordie: An Unauthorized Biography of Gordie Howe.'' Vancouver: Greystone, 1994, 2003. *''Cold War: The Amazing Canada-Soviet Hockey Series of 1972.'' Vancouver: Greystone, 1996. *''The Perilous Trade: Publishing Canada’s Writers.'' Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 2003, 2007.

Awards

*Finalist, National Magazine Awards, 1996 *Finalist, Ottawa-Carleton Book Award, 1996 - ''Cold War'' *Janice E. Handford Small Press Award for contributions to Canadian book publishing, 1998 *''Globe and Mail'' 100 Notable Books of the Year, 2003 - ''The Perilous Trade'' *Finalist, National Business Book Award, 2003 - ''The Perilous Trade''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macskimming, Roy Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian male novelists Writers from Ottawa University of Toronto alumni