Richard Wright

Radio and Television Arts ’59
Novelist, editor and teacher

After beginning his career as a radio and newspaper journalist, Richard B. Wright joined Macmillan Company of Canada working as an editor and then as Sales Manager. His first novel, The Weekend Man, was published in 1970 to international acclaim. Since then he has written twelve novels, all of which are still in print. His books have been published in the U.S.A., the U.K. and Australia, and they have been translated into several languages. He spent twenty years teaching English at Ridley College, a co-ed boarding school in St. Catharines, Ontario. In 1995 his eighth novel, The Age of Longing, was nominated for both the Governor General’s Award and the Giller Prize. In 2001 his next novel, Clara Callan, won both awards as well as the Trillium Prize and the CBA Libris Awards for Author of the Year and Book of the Year. His latest novel, October, was published in the fall of 2007. He has been awarded honorary degrees by three Canadian universities. In recognition of his contribution as a writer whose novels have enriched Canadian literature, Mr. Wright was named to the Order of Canada in 2007.