Drew Hayden Taylor
During the last twenty-five years of his life, Drew Hayden Taylor has done many things, most of which he is proud of. An Ojibway writer from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, he has worn many hats in his literary career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been an award-winning playwright (with over 70 productions of his work), a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers and magazines), short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and has worked on over 17 documentaries exploring the Native experience. Most notably, he wrote and directed REDSKINS, TRICKSTERS AND PUPPY STEW, a documentary on Native humour for the National Film Board of Canada.
He has traveled to seventeen countries around the world, spreading the gospel of Native literature to the world. Through many of his books, most notably the four volume set of the FUNNY, YOU DON’T LOOK LIKE ONE series, he has tried to educate and inform the world about issues that reflect, celebrate, and interfere in the lives of Canada’s First Nations.
Self described as a contemporary story teller in whatever form, he co-created and for three years was the head writer for MIXED BLESSINGS, a television comedy series as well as contributed scripts to four other popular Canadian television series. In 2007, a made-for-tv movie he wrote, based on his Governor General’s nominated play, IN A WORLD CREATED BY A DRUNKEN GOD was nominated for three Gemini Awards, including Best Movie. Originally it aired on APTN and opened the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, and the Dreamspeakers Film Festival in Edmonton. In 2011 and 2012, he wrote the script for the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards.
The last few years has seen him proudly serve as the Writer-In-Residence at the University of Michigan, the University of Western Ontario, University of Luneburg (Germany), Ryerson University, Wilfrid Laurier, as well as a host of Canadian theatre companies i.e. Cahoots theatre, Blyth Theatre etc. From 1994-97, he proudly served as the Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts.
In 2007, Annick Press published his first Novel, THE NIGHT WANDERER: A Native Gothic Novel, a teen novel about an Ojibway vampire. Several years ago, his non-fiction book exploring the world of Native sexuality, called ME SEXY, was published by Douglas & McIntyre. It is a follow up to his highly successful book on Native humour, ME FUNNY. The third instalment, ME ARTSY, has just been released and deals with the Aboriginal artistic spirit..
2010 saw the publication of his novel MOTORCYCLES & SWEETGRASS. Randomhouse proudly proclaimed him “One of the new faces of fiction for 2010”. It was also short listed for the Governor General’s Award for fiction. 2011saw the publication by Talon Books of Drew’s newest collection of articles and essays, NEWS: Postcards From The Four Directions which explored Native existence as he sees it, in his own wonky style. This was followed by the publication of his two new plays, GOD AND THE INDIAN and CERULEAN BLUE. Finally, this year a selection of his best articles and columns were published by Theytus books, in THE BEST OF ‘FUNNY YOU DON’T LOOK LIKE ONE’.
Most recently, Douglas & McIntyre published a collection of his Native themed science fiction short stories, titled TAKE US TO YOUR CHIEF AND OTHER STORIES. Add to this his fresh from the press new play, CREES IN THE CARIBBEAN. This brings his publication total to 30 books.
Oddly enough, the thing his mother was most proud of was his ability to make spaghetti from scratch.
Related Events
