Ronald Wright
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Ronald Wright
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"Societies that do not eat people are fascinated by those that do."
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Ronald Wright
This article is about the Canadian author. For the American boxer see Winky Wright.
| Ronald Wright | |
|---|---|
 Ronald Wright speaking at the University of Alberta 2007. |
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| Born | 1948 London, England |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Writer, Historian, Archeologist |
Ronald Wright (born 1948, London, England) is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller Stolen Continents, winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times. His first novel, A Scientific Romance, won the 1997 David Higham Prize for Fiction and was chosen a book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the Sunday Times, and the New York Times.
Wright was selected to give the 2004 Massey Lectures. His contribution, A Short History of Progress, looks at the modern human predicament in light of the 10,000-year experiment with civilization. In it he concludes that human civilization, to survive, would need to become environmentally sustainable, with specific reference to global warming and climate change.
His latest work What is America?: A Short History of the New World Order continues the thread begun in A Short History of Progress by examining what Wright calls "the Columbian Age" and consequently the nature and historical origins of modern American imperium.
Ronald Wright is also a frequent contributor to the Times Literary Supplement, and has written and presented documentaries for radio and television on both sides of the Atlantic. He studied archaeology at Cambridge University and later at the University of Calgary, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1996. He lives in British Columbia.
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Career
Wright has a background in archaeology, history, linguistics, anthropology and comparative culture.[1][2] He has written both fiction and non-fiction books dealing with anthropology and civilizations. His 1992 non-fiction book Stolen Continents: The "New World" Through Indian Eyes was awarded the 1993 Gordon Montador Award from the Writers' Trust of Canada[3] and his 1998 novel A Scientific Romance, about a museum curator who travels into the future and investigates the fate of the human race, won the David Higham Prize for Fiction for first-time novelists. The novel, Henderson's Spear, published in 2002, was about a jailed filmmaker piecing together her family history in Polynesia.
In 2002 he moved from Port Hope, Ontario to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, near his wife's work as a professor of anthropology at the University of British Columbia.[4] Wright traces the origins of the ideas behind A Short History of Progress to the material he studied while writing A Scientific Romance and his 2000 essay for The Globe and Mail titled "Civilization is a Pyramid Scheme" about the fall of the ninth-century Mayan civilization.[5]
Bibliography
Novels
- A Scientific Romance, 1998, Vintage Canada
- Henderson's Spear, 2002, Vintage Canada
Non-fiction
- Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in Peru, 1984, Penguin Books
- On Fiji Islands, 1986, Penguin Books
- Time Among the Maya, 1990, Penguin Books
- Stolen Continents: The "New World" Through Indian Eyes, 1992, Penguin Books
- Home and Away, 1994, Vintage Canada
- A Short History of Progress, 2004, Anansi Press
- What is America?: A Short History of the New World Order, 2008, Knopf Canada
Awards
- 1986 Canadian Science Writers' Association Award, for "The Lamanai Enigma"
- 1990 Shortlist, Trillium Book Award, for Time Among the Maya
- 1991 CBC Literary Award, for "Going to the Wall"
- 1992 Nominated, Author of the Year, CBA Libris Award, for Stolen Continents
- 1993 Gordon Montador Award, for Stolen Continents
- 1995 Globe and Mail Editor's Choice, for A Scientific Romance
- 1996 Honorary Doctorate, University of Calgary
- 1997 David Higham Prize for Fiction for A Scientific Romance
- 1998 Sunday Times (UK) Book of the Year, for A Scientific Romance
- 2005 Finalist, British Columbia Achievement Foundation Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, for A Short History of Progress
- 2005 Non-Fiction Book of the Year, CBA Libris Award, for A Short History of Progress
See also
Notes
- ^ Kirbyson, Ron (November 7, 2004). "Unbridled progress a worrisome thing". Winnipeg Free Press (Winnipeg, Manitoba): p. B.9.
- ^ Drainie, Bronwyn (December 2004). "As we go up, we go down". Quill & Quire 70 (12): 23. http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=4249. Retrieved November 17, 2010.
- ^ "Stolen Continents wins inaugural award (Gordon Montador Award)". The Canadian Bookseller 15 (6): 106. June/July 1993.
- ^ Firby, Doug (July 30, 2005). "Homo sapiens as repeat offender". Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta): p. G.3.
- ^ Martin, Sandra (November 6, 2004). "Our last chance to get the future right". The Globe and Mail: p. F.6. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/our-last-chance-to-get-the-future-right/article956497/page1/. Retrieved November 17, 2010.
External links
- RonaldWright.com Official Website (including audio and video interviews with the author)
- British Columbia Achievement Foundation Award biography of Ronald Wright as a finalist for Canadian non-fiction in 2005
- The Origins of Man contains, after a permaculture segment, the first of five 2004 Massey Lectures on A Short History of Progress
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