David Chariandy

Professor; Graduate Faculty; Undergraduate Instructor
Jackman Humanities Building, Department of English, 170 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5R 2M8

Campus

Fields of Study

Areas of Interest

  • Interdisciplinary Black Studies
  • Interdisciplinary Caribbean Studies
  • Black/Indigenous Relations

Biography

David Chariandy FRSC (he/him) is a writer and critic.  Author of the novels Soucouyant and Brother, and the epistolary memoir I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You: A Letter To My Daughter, his books have been widely discussed, translated into a dozen languages, and awarded the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Toronto Book Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction.  As a critic, he has contributed substantially to the field of Black Canadian literature through articles, book chapters, publishing initiatives, and co-edited special issues of journals.  He is a member of the editorial board of Brick: A literary journal and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Division of Arts.

Professor Chariandy’s goals are to support creative writing, to organize cultural events bridging the public/academic divide, and to deepen space for the study of Black, Caribbean, and Canadian literatures.  A specialist in prose forms, his recent writing projects confront auto-theory, ‘critical fabulation,’ and disjunction in diasporic narration.  Having served on executive, steering, or advisory committees for the Writer’s Union of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Vancouver Public Library, the Public Lending Right Program, Broadview Press, and McClelland & Stewart Press, he remains multiply engaged in the rapidly shifting ecology of writing, publishing, and reading in Canada.

Publications

Brother. McClelland & Stewart, 2017 (Canada) + 14 other countries/territories.  

  • Winner, Roger’s Writers’ Trust Award, 2017
  • Winner, City of Toronto Book Prize, 2018
  • Winner, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, BC Book Prizes, 2018
  • Winner, Premio LiberisLiber Narrativa [for fiction in Catalan], 2019.
  • Finalist, Canada Reads, 2019
  • Finalist, Aspen Words Prize (US), 2019
  • Finaliste du Prix littéraire des lycéens et apprentis de la Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (France), 2019/20
  • Nominee, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, 2019 (Fiction)
  • Longlisted, Scotiabank Giller, Prize 2017
  • Longlisted, PEN Open Book Award (US), 2018
  • Longlisted, The Believer Book Awards for Fiction (US), 2019
  • Longlisted, Canada Reads, 2018
  • Longlisted, George Orwell Prize for Fiction (UK), 2019
  • Longlisted, International Dublin Award, 2018
  • Twelve ‘Book of the Year’ Lists, including The Globe and MailThe National PostThe Toronto StarThe Montreal Gazette, CBC, the New York Public Library, Kirkus ReviewsEsquire Magazine, and The Guardian.
  • Film adaptation (Brother, 2022) by writer and director Clement Virgo.

Soucouyant. Arsenal Pulp, 2007 (Canada) + 4 other countries/territories.

  • Winner, ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award for literary fiction from a North American independent press (US), 2007
  • Runner up, Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe (France/Caribbean), 2012. 
  • Shortlisted, Governor General's Award for Fiction, 2007
  • Shortlisted, Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book of Canada and the Caribbean, 2008
  • Shortlisted Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize of the British Columbia Book Prizes, 2008
  • Shortlisted, City of Toronto Book Award, 2008
  • Shortlisted, "One Book, One Vancouver" of the Vancouver Public Library, 2008
  • Shortlisted, Relit Award for best novel from a Canadian independent press, 2008
  • Shortlisted, Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award, 2007
  • Longlisted, Scotiabank Giller Prize, 2007
  • Longlisted, International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2009

The Journey Prize Stories (2023): the Best of Canada’s New Black Writers (co-selected with Esi Edugyan and Canisia Lubrin).

Topia 46 (Spring 2023): A Map to the Door of No Return: A Gathering (co-edited with Andrea Davis, Marcelle-Anne Fletcher, Canisia Lubrin, Michelle Molubi-Johnson, and Christina Sharpe).  

Transition Magazine 124 (Fall 2017): “Writing Black Canadas.”  (special section co-edited with Phanuel Antwi).

Other publications

SX Salon 30“Brother, by David Chariandy” (2019).  [journal special issue on Brother, edited by Kelly Baker Josephs]

Solbiac, Rodolphe.  Critical Perspectives on David Chariandy’s Writings.  Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.  [book on Chariandy’s writings]

Studies in Canadian Literature, vol 47, no. 2, 2023.  [journal special section including three essays on Chariandy’s writings, edited by Camille Isaacs and Karina Vernon]

Education

BA Carleton University
MA Carleton University
PhD York University