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Brian Doyle (born 12 August 1935) is a Canadian writer whose children's books have been adapted into both movies and plays. Many of his stories are drawn from his experiences growing up in Ottawa and vicinity. For his contribution as a children's writer, he was awarded the prestigious NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2005〔("2005 NSK Neustadt Laureate Brian Doyle" ). 〕 and was one of five finalists in 1998 and again in 2008 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books.〔〔 Among Canada's most distinguished authors of middle-grade and young-adult novels, Brian Doyle is acclaimed as an exceptional storyteller as well as a talented writer whose works reflect both insight and sensitivity in depicting the moral dilemmas of young people. Doyle's books take place in both historical and contemporary periods and his sense of humour is considered one of his most appealing features. His writings evoke a strong sense of location, reflecting urban Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley. ''Angel Square'' and ''Easy Avenue'' are set in Ottawa in the 1940s and 50's; ''Spud Sweetgrass'' represents Ottawa in the early 1990s. ''Uncle Ronald'' and ''Covered Bridge''draw on Brian Doyle's childhood memories of the Ottawa Valley. Writing in Books for Young People, Eva Martin called Doyle "one of the most daring and experimental writers of young-adult novels. He deals with the most sensitive of issues—race, violence, anti-social activity of all sorts—with a tongue-in-cheek humor that never denigrates the human spirit." Writing in Magpies, Agnes Nieuwenhuizen concluded, "Perhaps Doyle's most extraordinary feat is that there is never a sense of design or message or moralising. What shines through his work is a breath of vision and tolerance and a quirky exuberance and curiosity even in the face of adversity and resistance." Many of Doyle's most popular early novels are collected in the 1999 anthology ''The Low Life''. ==Biography== Born 1935 in Ottawa, Ontario, Doyle grew up in two "homes": his family's home in the ethnically-diverse section of Ottawa where he spent the school year and a log cabin on the Gatineau River near Low, Quebec, about forty miles north of town, where he spent his summers. Doyle's memories of his parents, siblings, and neighbors as well as the landscape and atmosphere he encountered as a child greatly influenced his writing, as did his experiences raising his own three children. Doyle grew up in a home with a rich story-telling tradition but his home life was difficult. His father was cruel when he drank and his mother, who cared for Doyle's mentally disabled older sister, Pamela, as well as for the rest of the family, was often overwhelmed. When he was in the eighth grade, Pamela, who had Down's syndrome, died; Doyle's memories of Pamela and the toll her care-taking took on his mother, has led him to include several characters with disabilities in his books. In high school at Ottawa's Glebe Collegiate Institute, Doyle began submitting short stories to magazines, some of which came back with personal rejection letters. However, writing only occupied a small part of his teen years. Doyle played football, won medals in gymnastics, and published poetry in the yearbook; he also fought, stole, and skipped school. After graduating from Glebe Collegiate, Doyle attended Carleton University in Ottawa, where he majored in journalism and met Jackie Aronson, the woman he would later marry. Just before graduation, he won a prize for an essay he wrote on the Gatineau River Valley; right after graduation, he became a reporter for the ''Toronto Telegram''. He soon left journalism to teach high school in Ottawa; he also completed the course work for a master's degree in literature at University of Ottawa, but left before writing his thesis. While working as a teacher, Doyle continued his writing, working as a columnist for a local newspaper and publishing a short story in the literary magazine ''Fiddlehead''. After he and his wife adopted two children, Megan and Ryan, and became involved in local theater, his writing took a new turn when he began writing well-received plays for his students. Doyle also became somewhat of a celebrity when one of his articles on the poor quality of teacher training was quoted in the ''Toronto Globe and Mail''. Offered a position at his alma mater, Glebe Collegiate, Doyle became head of that school's English department and continued to write well-received student plays, including ten musicals and a satirical parody of Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' before retiring from teaching in 1991. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Brian Doyle (writer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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