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Call Number: Mss 363, Pc 319, Tc 163, El 34 (A.12-64)
Title: Joan Thomas fonds
Dates: 1971-2012, predominant 2000-2011
Extent: 1.13 m of textual material, 2 audio cassette tapes, 3 CD-Rs, 2 photographs.
Biographical sketch:
Joan Thomas grew up on the Canadian prairies. She studied English at the University of Winnipeg and taught English in three different high schools, as well as in a teacher-training program in the Caribbean. She has worked as a freelance writer, reviewer, and editor, and as Writing and Publishing Consultant for the Manitoba Arts Council.
Thomas has been a frequent book reviewer for the Globe and Mail since 1993 and for two years wrote a biweekly feature review in the Globe. In 2010, she, along with Pasha Malla and Alissa York, selected the stories for the Journey Prize Anthology (McClelland & Stewart) and in 1999 she was co-editor (with Heidi Harms) of Turn of the Story: Canadian Short Fiction on the Eve of the Millennium (House of Anansi Press). Her interview-based features with writers have been published in the Winnipeg Free Press and Prairie Fire.
Thomas has been writing fiction since about 2000. Her 2008 novel Reading by Lightning won the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book (Canada and the Caribbean) and the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. Her second novel, Curiosity, was published in April 2010 by McClelland & Stewart. It was named a Quill and Quire Book of the Year and was nominated for the ScotiaBank Giller Prize and the International IMPAC-Dublin Literary Award.
Custodial history: The fonds was donated to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections by Joan Thomas in 2012
Scope and content: This fonds consists of research for and drafts of Thomas's long- and short-form fiction work, as well as copies of her published work. Correspondence with editors, friends, and fans is also included, as are records and information from Thomas's visits to academic conferences and the Banff Centre for the Arts. As well, a digital copy of material found on Thomas's website is included.
Restrictions: There are no known restrictions on this fonds.
Accruals: No further accruals are expected.
Finding aid: A finding aid is currently unavailable.