Cynthia Flood
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Cynthia Flood | |
|---|---|
| Born | Cynthia Creighton September 17, 1940 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupation | fiction writer |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Period | 1980s-present |
| Notable works | My Father Took a Cake to France, Making a Stone of the Heart, Red Girl Rat Boy |
| Relatives | Donald Creighton, father Luella Creighton, mother |
Cynthia Flood (born September 17, 1940)[1] is a Canadian short-story writer and novelist. The daughter of novelist Luella Creighton and historian Donald Creighton,[1][2] she grew up primarily in Toronto.[1] After attending the University of Toronto and the University of California, Berkeley she spent some years in the United States, where she married Maurice Flood before moving to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1969.[3]
She has been active in many socialist, feminist, anti-war, and environmental groups, and in the faculty union while an English instructor at Langara College (1971-2001).[3] Maurice came out as gay in the 1970s, and was a prominent organizer with the Gay Alliance Toward Equality.[3] In 1973, both Maurice and Cynthia actively campaigned to have the federal New Democratic Party more explicitly include gay rights in its platform.[4] She and Maurice separated in 1981. Cynthia continued activity in the NDP and in the women's movement for years after that. As a member of Women Against the Budget, she participated in Vancouver's Solidarity movement (1985). As the 80s went on, she began to focus on her writing.
After retirement, she briefly taught creative writing in Simon Fraser University's writing and publishing program.[5]
Flood's first three books of short fiction are The Animals in Their Elements, My Father Took a Cake to France (Talonbooks, 1987 and 1992), and The English Stories (Biblioasis 2009). The title story from My Father Took a Cake to France won the Journey Prize in 1990,[6] and she has also won awards from Western Magazines and Prism International. Her work has been widely anthologized, and has been repeatedly included in Best Canadian Stories. Her novel Making a Stone of the Heart (Key Porter, 2002) was nominated for the City of Vancouver Book Award that year.[7]
Her collection, The English Stories was published in April 2009 by Biblioasis. These short fictions are set in 1950s England. One, "Religious Knowledge," won the National Magazine Gold Award in 2000, after its publication in PRISM International. Another, "Learning to Dance," is included in Best Canadian Stories 2008, edited by John Metcalf.
Flood's latest collection, Red Girl Rat Boy (Biblioasis 2013), was chosen by January Magazine and Quill & Quire as one of 2013's notable books. It was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize from BC Book Prizes, and long-listed for the Frank O'Connor Short Story award. Her work appears regularly in literary magazines, e. g. Fireweed, Queen's Quarterly, A Room of One's Own, Wascana Review, and in "Best Canadian Stories". In 2017 Biblioasis will publish her fifth book of short fictions, "What Can You Do."
References
- ^ a b c "Vancouver writer wins $10,000 Canadian fiction prize". The Globe and Mail, May 25, 1990.
- ^ W. H. New, Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada. University of Toronto Press, 2002. ISBN 0802007619. "Creighton, Luella Sanders", p. 247.
- ^ a b c "Figures of Authority". Books in Canada.
- ^ "NDP Conference". The Body Politic, Volume 9 (1973).
- ^ "Celebration of SFU Authors" (PDF). Simon Fraser University. 2009-11-04. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Cynthia Flood, Contributor - Banff Centre Press". Archived from the original on 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
- ^ "City of Vancouver Book Award Past Winners and Finalists 1989-2008" (PDF). City of Vancouver. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
External links
- Cynthia Flood
- Records of Cynthia Flood are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1940 births
- Living people
- 20th-century Canadian short story writers
- 21st-century Canadian novelists
- Canadian women novelists
- Canadian women short story writers
- 20th-century Canadian women writers
- 21st-century Canadian women writers
- Writers from Toronto
- Writers from Vancouver
- Canadian feminist writers
- Canadian anti-war activists
- Canadian environmentalists
- Canadian women environmentalists
- Canadian socialists
- LGBT rights activists from Canada
- 21st-century Canadian short story writers
- Langara College people