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Taras Grescoe

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Taras Grescoe, photographed near Lachute, Quebec
Taras Grescoe
Born1966 (1966) (age 58)
Toronto, Canada
OccupationWriter
Notable awards
Website
taras-grescoe.com

Taras Grescoe (born 1966)[1] is a Canadian non-fiction writer. His debut book, Sacré Blues, won the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, and McAuslan First Book Prize. His fourth book, Bottomfeeder, won the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, awarded to the best work of non-fiction by a Canadian writer, in 2008, as well as the IACP Award for Literary Food Writing.

Biography

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Grescoe was born in 1966, in Toronto.[1]

From 1990 to 1994, Grescoe taught English in Paris, after which he moved to Montreal and began working as a travel journalist.[1] He has since contributed to Canadian Geographic,[2] The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure, The Smithsonian, Monocle, Afar, National Geographic, Food & Wine, Salon, L'actualité, The New Yorker, The Independent, The Guardian, Salon, National Geographic Traveler, the Times of London, Gourmet, Wired, the Chicago Tribune Magazine, and Condé Nast Traveller.

His book, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood has also been published as Dead Seas: How the Fish on Our Plates is Killing the Planet (Pan/Macmillan 2012).

Since the publication of Straphanger, he has published op-eds, given keynotes, and developed a social media following commenting on urbanism, transit, and active transport. Since 2023, he has written a regular newsletter for the Quebec newsmagazine L'actualité on trains, transit, urbanism, and sustainable transportation.

He has served as juror at the Canada Council for the Arts (publishing) and for the Marian Hebb Research Grant. Since the beginning of 2023, he has been a professor of Creative Writing, specializing in literary journalism, at Concordia University in Montreal.

He lives in Outremont, Quebec.[3]

Awards and honours

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In 2022, Grescoe won a Marian Hebb Research Grant, which is intended to support "inquiry and exploration relevant to Canadian publishing, writing and visual arts, and toward the realization of a publishable work in progress.”[4] He is a fellow of the Fondation Michalski in Montricher, Switzerland, where he worked during a six-week residency in the summer of 2022.

In addition to the below, Hélène Rioux's translation of Bottomfeeder was shortlisted for The Cole Foundation Prize for Translation in 2010.[5]

Awards for Grescoe's writing
Year Title Award Result Ref.
2000 Sacré Blues Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction Shortlist [6]
Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction Winner [7][8]
McAuslan First Book Prize Winner [9]
2001 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction Winner [10]
2003 The End of Elsewhere Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction Shortlist
Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction Shortlist [8]
2008 Bottomfeeder Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction Winner
IACP Award for Literary Food Writing Winner
2012 Straphanger Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction Shortlist [11]
Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction Winner [8][12]
2013 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing Shortlist [13]
2016 Shanghai Grand B.C. National Award for Canadian Nonfiction Shortlist [14][15]
Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction Shortlist [8]
2020 Possess the Air Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction Winner [8][16][17]

Books

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  • Sacré Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec (2000)
  • The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists (2003)
  • The Devil's Picnic: Around the World in Pursuit of Forbidden Fruit (2005)
  • Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood (2008)
  • Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile (2012)
  • Shanghai Grand: Forbidden Love and International Intrigue in a Doomed World (2016)
  • Possess the Air: Love, Heroism, and the Battle for the Soul of Mussolini's Rome (2019)
  • The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past (2023)

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Grescoe, Taras 1966-". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 2021-09-17. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  2. ^ Articles by Taras Grescoe at Canadian Geographic Archived 2011-11-17 at the Wayback Machine. Canadian Geographic, May 18, 2011.
  3. ^ "Taras Grescoe wins Writers' Trust" Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine. Dose, November 17, 2008.
  4. ^ Drudi, Cassandra (2022-06-16). "Access Copyright Foundation announces recipients of 2022 Marian Hebb Research Grants". Quill and Quire. Archived from the original on 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
  5. ^ "Le Prix de traduction de la Fondation Cole / The Cole Foundation Prize for Translation". Quebec Writers' Federation. Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  6. ^ "Memoirs, histories vie for $60K Hilary Weston Prize". CBC News. 2012-09-25. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  7. ^ "Grescoe a double-winner at Quebec writers' awards: Distinct-society analysis gets two English-language book prizes". Montreal Gazette. 2000-12-01.
  8. ^ a b c d e "The Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction". Quebec Writers' Federation. Archived from the original on 2022-09-28. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  9. ^ "Grescoe a double-winner at Quebec writers' awards: Distinct-society analysis gets two English-language book prizes". Montreal Gazette. 2000-12-01.
  10. ^ Wilfrid Laurier University 2001: Taras Grescoe, retrieved 11/17/2012
  11. ^ Woods, Stuart (2012-11-13). "Candace Savage celebrates Weston Prize win". Quill and Quire. Archived from the original on 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
  12. ^ Grondin, Mélanie (2012-11-21). "Quebec Writers' Federation Honors the Best". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 2013-01-09. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  13. ^ Sequeira, Natalie (2013-01-15). "Finalists for Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing announced". Quill and Quire. Archived from the original on 2015-12-10. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
  14. ^ "Awards: Grammy Nominations; Center for Fiction First Novel; Canadian Nonfiction". Shelf Awareness. 2016-12-07. Archived from the original on 2022-12-09. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
  15. ^ Robertson, Becky (2017-01-30). "Sandra Martin wins 2017 B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction". Quill and Quire. Archived from the original on 2022-05-24. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
  16. ^ Porter, Ryan (2020-11-05). "Kaie Kellough wins Quebec Writers' Federation's fiction prize". Quill and Quire. Archived from the original on 2022-10-05. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  17. ^ Dunlevy, T'Cha (2020-11-06). "Kaie Kellough wins fiction prize at Quebec Writers' Federation Awards". Montreal Gazette. Archived from the original on 2022-05-17. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
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