Hodgins, Jack (1938-…), is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, and teacher. Hodgins sets most of his fiction on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, exuberantly portraying the island’s colorful characters and vivid landscapes. Hodgins received the 1979 Governor General’s Literary Award for English fiction for his novel The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne. The award is one of the highest national prizes given to Canadian authors.
Hodgins frequently writes about the seven Barclay sisters who live on Vancouver Island. The Barclay family plays a major role in the short story collections Split Delaney’s Island (1976), the first book written by Hodgins, and The Barclay Family Theatre (1981). The Barclays also appear in the novels The Invention of the World (1977), The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (1979), and The Macken Charm (1995).
Hodgins’s other novels include The Honorary Patron (1987), Innocent Cities (1990), Broken Ground (1998), Distance (2003), The Master of Happy Endings (2010), and Cadillac Cathedral (2014). Several of his later short stories were collected in Damage Done by the Storm (2004). Hodgins wrote Over Forty in Broken Hill (1992), an account of his travels in the Australian outback. The outback is Australia’s rural interior. He also wrote Left Behind in Squabble Bay (1988), a children’s story. A Passion for Narrative (1993; revised edition 2001) is a guide to writing fiction.
Jack Stanley Hodgins was born on Oct. 3, 1938, in Comox and grew up in the logging and farm settlement of Merville, both on Vancouver Island. He received a bachelor of education degree from the University of British Columbia in 1961 and spent the next 18 years teaching English in a high school on Vancouver Island. The success of Spit Delaney’s Island and The Invention of the World allowed him to concentrate on a writing career starting in the late 1970’s. Hodgins was a professor of creative writing at the University of Victoria from 1983 until he retired in 2002. In 2009, he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors.
