Clarke, Austin

Austin Ardinel Chesterfield ("Tom") Clarke, author, was born in Barbados on 26 July 1934. His parents were Kenneth Trotman and Gladys Irene Clarke. His mother later married F.H. Luke. Clarke immigrated to Canada in 1956 and attended Trinity College at the University of Toronto for a short time. His interest in writing began early in life, and in the 1960s his short stories began to be published in Canadian and other periodicals. Clarke's stories and novels primarily centre around the plight of the immigrant West Indian in Canada, although his first two novels, The Survivors of the Crossing and Amongst Thistles and Thorns, take place in Barbados.

He was a member of The Immigration and Refugee Board from 1983 to 1993; he also held a position with The Ontario Film Review Board from 1984 to 1987. Clarke was the inaugural recipient of The Rogers Communications Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for his semi-autobiographical novel The Origin of Waves, published in 1997. His 2002 novel, The Polished Hoe, won the Trillium, Giller and Commonwealth prizes. His novel More was published in 2008. The author currently resides in Toronto, Ont. For further biographical material, please consult McMaster University's Library Research News (6, no. 1, Spring 1982) and Stella Algoo-Baksh, Austin C. Clarke: A Biography (Toronto: ECW Press, 1994). Clarke died in Toronto on 26 June 2016.

2015-5-29

W. Laufs