Alistair MacLeod

Canadian author and professor of English (1936-2014) · Canada · On the map · Writers · Died at 77

Alistair MacLeod was a Canadian novelist, short story writer and academic. His powerful and moving stories vividly evoke the beauty of Cape Breton Island's rugged landscape and the resilient character of many of its inhabitants, the descendants of Scottish immigrants, who are haunted by ancestral memories and who...

Alistair MacLeod is read about 50 times a day, in 14 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 20 September 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.

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A life in dates

2014Died20 April 20142009PEN/Malamud AwardAward2008Officer of the Order of CanadaAward2000Dartmouth Book AwardAwardThomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction AwardAward1936Born20 July 1936

Also in Deutsch

Media & music

Photos 3

MacLeod in his university office, 2013

MacLeod reads from his work

Awards

PEN/Malamud Award2009

Officer of the Order of Canada2008

Dartmouth Book Award2000

Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award2000

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

About this person

His powerful and moving stories vividly evoke the beauty of Cape Breton Island's rugged landscape and the resilient character of many of its inhabitants, the descendants of Scottish immigrants, who are haunted by ancestral memories and who struggle to reconcile the past and the present. MacLeod has been praised for his verbal precision, his lyric intensity and his use of simple, direct language that seems rooted in an oral tradition.

Country

Canada