Internationally recognized writer and scholar, Dr. Alexander MacLeod, will be at StFX this week to give a public reading on Wednesday, Oct. 29th from his short story collection, Animal Person, recognized as a "Book of the Year" by The New Yorker, The Irish Times, The Globe and Mail and CBC Books. Dr. MacLeod will also meet with StFX students during his time on campus.
The public reading will take place at 4 p.m. in Mulroney Hall 3030 and is open to all.
Earlier in the day, Dr. MacLeod will meet with students in Dr. Mary McGillivray’s first year class, English 111:13, where he'll give a brief reading and have a conversation with the students. Several extra seats in the class are open to creative writing students who may not be able to attend the public reading.
“This is a chance for first year students to learn a bit about the current literary scene in our region and in Canada, and to hear about the particular craft of short-story writing,” Dr. McGillivray says.
Dr. MacLeod is an award-winning writer of short fiction, having won the prestigious O Henry prize in 2019 for his story “Lagomorph,” which was originally published in the British literary quarterly Granta. The O. Henry prize is among the most notable awards for short fiction in English.
His short stories have won numerous prestigious awards. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Guardian, and The Globe and Mail.
His first collection of short stories, Light Lifting, was an international bestseller and was named a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize of 2010, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and the Commonwealth Book Prize.
In 2021, he and his friend and collaborator, Andrew Steeves, were awarded The Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts award for their book Lagomorph.
Most recently he and colleague Souvankham Thammavongsa have co-edited and published Journey, a special 35th anniversary edition of the annual Canadian anthology of selected emerging short fiction writers’ stories, The Journey Prize.
Alexander MacLeod is a professor of English, Creative Writing, and Atlantic Canada Studies at Saint Mary’s University. He lives in Dartmouth, NS.
