Austin Clarke
Austin Ardinel Chesterfield "Tom" Clarke, OOnt (July 26, 1934 – June 26, 2016), was a Barbadian novelist, essayist, and short story writer who was based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Among his notable books are novels such as The Polished Hoe (2002), memoirs including Membering (2015), and two collections of poetry, Where the Sun Shines Best (2013) and In Your Crib (2015).
Also recorded as Austin C. Clarke · Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke
Austin Clarke

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- Name
- Austin Clarke
- Birth Name
- Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke
- Born
- 26 July 1934
- Birthplace
- St.
- Died
- 26 June 2016
- Place of death
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Education
- Trinity College, Toronto
- Occupation
- * Novelist
- Full name
- Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke.
- Nationality
- Canada.
- Known for
- The Polished Hoe.
- Honours
- Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Order of Ontario, Member of the Order of Canada, Giller Prize and Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
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Austin Ardinel Chesterfield "Tom" Clarke, OOnt (July 26, 1934 – June 26, 2016), was a Barbadian novelist, essayist, and short story writer who was based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Among his notable books are novels such as The Polished Hoe (2002), memoirs including Membering (2015), and two collections of poetry, Where the Sun Shines Best (2013) and In Your Crib (2015).
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Authority files
wikidata · Q320358
In this article
Biography
Biography
Austin Clarke studied at University of Toronto, Combermere School and Harrison College. The recorded working language is English. Places of work recorded in the authority are Toronto. Employment is recorded with Concordia University. Works named in the authority record are The Polished Hoe. Distinctions recorded are Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Order of Ontario, Member of the Order of Canada and Giller Prize.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Austin Clarke • Honorific Suffix — OOnt • Birth Name — Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke • Born — 26 July 1934 • Birthplace — St. James, Barbados • Died — 26 June 2016 • Place of death — Toronto, Ontario, Canada • Education — Trinity College, Toronto • Occupation — * Novelist • short story writer • essayist • Period — 1960s–2016 • Notable Works — The Polished Hoe (2002)
Early life and education
Early life and education
Austin Clarke was born in 1934 in St. James, Barbados, where he received his early education in Anglican schools. He taught at a rural school for three years. In 1955, he moved to Canada and attended the University of Toronto's Trinity College for two years.
Career
Career
Clarke was a reporter at the Timmins Daily Press and the Globe and Mail, before joining the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a freelance journalist. He subsequently taught at several American universities, including Yale University (Hoyt fellow, 1968–1970), Duke University (1971–1972), and the University of Texas (Visiting Professor, 1973) and helped establish black studies programs at several universities. In 1973, he was designated cultural attaché at the Barbadian embassy in Washington, DC, and later became General Manager of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation in Barbados (1975–1977). He was Writer-in-Residence at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec (1977), and at the University of Western Ontario (1978). He became a Canadian citizen in 1981. From 1988 to 1993, he served on the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. He was not the first Canadian writer of African origin with that distinction belonging to 19th-century author Amelia E. Johnson. However, George Elliott Clarke says that Clarke was "the author of African descent in English, in Canada, that anyone who was interested in being a writer would have to be aware of and challenge as well." In September 2012, at the International Festival of Authors, Clarke was announced as the winner of the $10,000 Harbourfront Festival Prize "on the merits of his published work and efforts in fostering literary talent in new and aspiring writers". Previous recipients of the award (established in 1984) include: Dionne Brand, Wayson Choy, Christopher Dewdney, Helen Humphreys, Paul Quarrington, Peter Robinson, Seth, Jane Urquhart, and Guy Vanderhaeghe. Clarke was reported as saying: "I rejoiced when I saw that Authors at Harbourfront Centre had named me this year's winner of the Harbourfront Festival Prize. I did not come to this city on September 29, 1959, as a writer. I came as a student. However, my career as a writer buried any contention of being a scholar and I thank Authors at Harbourfront Centre for saving me from the more painful life of the "gradual student". It is an honour to be part of such a prestigious list of authors." An outspoken intellectual, he avoided talking about multiculturalism, hoping that his own term ' omniculturalism could be accepted by people from both the political left and right. He ran as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 1977 Ontario general election. Clarke died on June 26, 2016, at the age of 81, in Toronto.
Novels
Novels
• The Survivors of the Crossing (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1964) • Amongst Thistles and Thorns (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965) • The Meeting Point (Toronto: Macmillan, 1967; Boston: Little, Brown, 1972) • Storm of Fortune (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973) • The Bigger Light (Boston: Little, Brown, 1975) • The Prime Minister (Don Mills, Ont.: General Publishing, 1977) • Proud Empires (London: Gollancz, 1986; Penguin-Viking, 1988) • The Origin of Waves (McClelland & Stewart, 1997; winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize) • The Question (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1999; nominated for a Governor General's Award) • The Polished Hoe (Toronto: Thomas Allen, 2002; winner of the Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize) • More (2008, winner of the City of Toronto Book Award)
Poetry
Poetry
• Where the Sun Shines Best (Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2013) • In Your Crib (Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2015)
Memoirs
Memoirs
• Growing Up Stupid Under the Union Jack: a Memoir (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1980; Thomas Allen, 2005) • "A Stranger In A Strange Land", The Globe and Mail, Toronto, 15 August 1990, p. 30. • Public Enemies: Police Violence and Black Youth (Toronto: HarperCollins, 1992) • A Passage Back Home: A Personal Reminiscence of Samuel Selvon (Toronto: Exile Editions, 1994) • Pigtails 'n Breadfruit: A Culinary Memoir (New Press, 1999); as Pigtails 'n' Breadfruit: The Rituals of Slave Food, A Barbadian Memoir (Toronto: Random House, 1999; University of Toronto Press, 2001); Pig Tails 'n' Breadfruit - Anniversary Edition (Ian Randle Publishers, 2014) • Love and Sweet Food: A Culinary Memoir (Toronto: Thomas Allen, 2004) • ′Membering (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2015)
Identity
Identity
Austin Clarke is recorded as having received Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Order of Ontario and Member of the Order of Canada.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1934
Austin Clarke born at Saint James.
2016
Austin Clarke died at Toronto.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Saint James.
Birth place
Toronto.
Death place
Short story collections
• When He Was Free and Young and He Used to Wear Silks (Toronto: Anansi, 1971; revised edition Little, Brown, 1973) • When Women Rule (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1985) • Nine Men Who Laughed (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1986) • In This City (Toronto: Exile Editions, 1992) • There Are No Elders (Toronto: Exile Editions, 1993) • The Austin Clarke Reader, ed. Barry Callaghan (Toronto: Exile Editions, 1996) • Choosing His Coffin: The Best Stories of Austin Clarke (Toronto: Thomas Allen, 2003) • They Never Told Me: and Other Stories (Holstein, ON: Exile Editions, 2013) • Canadian Experience (Toronto: Exile Editions, 1994)
Selected awards and honours
• 1980, Casa de las Américas Prize, Cuba • 1992, Toronto Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature • 1997, Lifetime Achievement Award from Frontier College in Toronto • 1998, Member of the Order of Canada. • 1999, Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award for Excellence in Writing. • 1999, W. O. Mitchell Literary Prize • 2002, Giller Prize, for The Polished Hoe • 2003, Commonwealth Writers' Prize • 2009, Toronto Book Award, for More. • 2012, Harbourfront Festival Prize
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q320358: Austin ClarkeWikimedia Foundation
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Further particulars
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Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Austin Clarke was recorded at birth as Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke. The authorities additionally record the headings Austin C. Clarke and Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke. His recorded language was English. Clarke received Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Order of Ontario, Member of the Order of Canada, Giller Prize and Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
Identity and origins
Recognition and collections
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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