BIO
- At November 25, 2011
- By Anne DeGrace
- In Uncategorized
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Anne DeGrace is a writer, illustrator, and librarian living near Nelson, British Columbia.
Her first novel, Treading Water (McArthur & Company, 2005), was inspired by Renata, a tiny community that once flourished on Lower Arrow Lake in the B.C. interior before hydroelectric development flooded the town, leaving only its stories. Treading Water was chosen as a “Heather’s Pick” shortly after publication. The book made the top of W. P. Kinsella’s honourable mentions for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award shortlist. In 2010 it was shortlisted for the One Book, One Kootenay Librarian’s Choice Award.
Anne’s second novel, Wind Tales (McArthur, 2007) examines the points of departure and chance encounters that change the way we see the world, as told through the tales of the disparate travellers who pass through a roadside café on a mountain pass during one extraordinary, windy day. Wind Tails has been shortlisted for the 2008 Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award. In 2009 Wind Tails was released in the U.S. by HarperCollins/Avon under the title Far From Home.
The story in Sounding Line, published by McArthur & Company in 2009, is drawn from Anne’s Nova Scotia roots. With a historical backdrop of a 1967 U.F.O. crash, the novel plays with themes of depth, space, and possibility, viewed through the lives of the residents of a fishing village. Sounding Line is a “Heather’s Pick” and has been optioned for a film.
In Flying with Amelia (McArthur, 2011), the descendents of an Irish immigrant family scatter across the country, their stories taking readers over 100 years and across the country. St. John’s Newfoundland to the Beaufort Sea, the story weaves the identity of a young country. The breadth and scope of Flying with Amelia demanded authenticity in terms of research, voice, and cultural nuance, a challenge Anne found engaging, and, if occasionally daunting, always exciting.
Anne has also co-authored four regional photographic books (Ward Creek Press) and illustrated seven children’s books for Polestar Press and for Bluefield books. She has worked as a journalist, writing features, news stories, and editorials, for more than fifteen years. Short stories and essays have appeared in The New Quarterly, Room of One’s Own, and Wascana Review.