King, Thomas, 1943- : Thomas King was born in 1943 in Sacramento California to parents of Greek and Cherokee descent. He is a noted novelist, short-story writer, essayist and screenwriter who is known for his incorporation of humour and indigenous oral storytelling structures into his explorations of the modern day North American indigenous experience in North America. King has also worked as an editor, academic, photographer, activist and journalist.
In 1964 Thomas King moved to Australia and New Zealand, where he worked as a photojournalist for three years. It was in this period he made his first attempts at writing (both short stories and a novel). After his return to the United States in 1967, he completed a B.A. and an M.A. in English from Chico State University and earned a Ph.D. studying indigenous oral storytelling tradition as literature from the University of Utah in 1986.
In 1980 King accepted a job teaching Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge, and made the move to Canada. There he met his wife, fellow professor Helen Hoy, with whom he edited his first essay collection about indigenous literature - "The Native in Literature" (1987). He followed this collection by editing two anthologies of indigenous fiction - "An Anthology of Short Fiction by Native Writers in Canada" (1988) and "All My Relations: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Native Fiction" (1990). Around this time, King also began seriously writing fiction. In 1990 his first novel, "Medicine River," was published to critical acclaim. It was turned into both a CBC television movie in 1993 and a radio play.
In 1995 King moved to Guelph, Ontario to take a position as professor of English at the University of Guelph. There he taught teaching native literature and creative writing. During this time, he continued writing fiction. "Green Grass, Running Water" (1993) was nominated for a Governor General's award, and was followed by "Truth and Bright Water" (1999). King has also delved into crime fiction, publishing four installments of the Thumps DreadfulWater series: "DreadfulWater Shows Up" (2002), "The Red Power Murders: A DreadfulWater Mystery" (2006), "Cold Skies" (2018), and "A Matter of Malice" (2019). The first two installments King published under the pen name Hartley GoodWeather, but switched back to his own name for the subsequent novels. In addition to his success as a novelist, Thomas King is also an accomplished children's author. In 1992 he published "A Coyote Columbus Story," which was illustrated by Kent Monkman and was nominated for a Governor General's award. This was followed by "Coyote Sings to the Moon" (1998), "Coyote's New Suit" (2004) and "A Coyote Solstice Tale" (2009).
From 1997 to 2000 King wrote, created and starred in the "Dead Dog Comedy Hour" radio show on the CBC, along side Floyd Flavel Starr and Edna Rain. The show was a satirical look of life in the fictional town of Blossom, Alberta (also the setting of "Green Grass, Running Water"). The show returned for a short while in 2006 as "Dead Dog in the City," set in Toronto. King is also works as a screenwriter, writing three episodes of "North of 60," a successful CBC television show set in the Northwest Territories, between 1994 and 1996, and short films such as "I'm Not The Indian You Had In Mind" (2007).
In 2003 King was the first indigenous person to give the CBC Massey Lectures in Toronto. His lecture "The Truth About Stories" investigated North America's relationship with its indigenous peoples. The lecture was later published and won the Trillium Book Award. Following this success, King was named to the Order of Canada in 2004 for his contributions to Canadian literature.
In addition to his academic and literary work, Thomas King is also an experienced photographer. Building on his photojournalism career in Australia and New Zealand in the 1960's, King continued to submit photographs to magazines, newspapers, and juried shows upon his return to North America. He also worked on larger-scale projects. In the 1990's King worked on a project titled The Medicine River Photographic Expedition, where he travelled across North America photographing contemporary indigenous artists. Photographs from these trips have been included in several exhibitions and publications. Also in the early 1990's, King began photographing musicians at the Guelph Jazz Festival, which culminated in the 2013 Sound Check exhibit in honour of the festival's 20th anniversary.
Thomas King retired from the University of Guelph in 2011 and is now an emeritus professor. After retiring, King has continued to write both fiction and non-fiction. "An Inconvenient Indian," which King has characterized as "historic journalism," was published in 2012, and his novel "The Back of the Turtle" (2014) won the Governor General's Award.
