W. P. Kinsella
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William Patrick Kinsella OC (born May 25, 1935, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) is a noted novelist who mainly writes about Canada's First Nations and baseball.
His most famous work is probably Shoeless Joe, upon which the movie Field of Dreams was based. A short story by Kinsella, "Lieberman in Love," was the basis for a short film that won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film -- the Oscar win came as a surprise to Kinsella, who, watching the award telecast from home, had no idea the film had been made and released. He had not been listed in the film's credits, and was not acknowledged by Christine Lahti in her acceptance speech -- a full page advertisement was later placed in Variety apologizing to Kinsella for the error. Kinsella's short stories about life on a First Nations reserve were the basis for the CBC television series, The Rez.
Before becoming a professional author, his jobs included scouting for the Atlanta Braves and being a professor of English at the University of Alberta. Kinsella now claims to have retired from writing, and is a noted tournament Scrabble player.
In 1993 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Works
- Dance Me Outside - 1977
- Scars - 1978
- Born Indian - 1981
- Shoeless Joe - 1982 (winner of the 1983 Books in Canada First Novel Award)
- The Thrill of the Grass - 1984
- The Alligator Report - 1985
- The Iowa Baseball Confederacy - 1986
- The Fence Post Chronicles - 1986 (winner of the 1987 Stephen Leacock Award)
- Five Stories - 1985
- Red Wolf, Red Wolf - 1987
- The Further Adventures of Slugger McBatt - 1988
- The Miss Hobbema Pageant - 1989
- Box Socials - 1991
- The Dixon Cornbelt League and Other Baseball Stories - 1993
- Brother Frank's Gospel Hour - 1994
- The Winter Helen Dropped By - 1995
- If Wishes Were Horses - 1996
- Magic Time - 1998
- The Secret of the Northern Lights - 1998
- Japanese Baseball and Other Stories - 2000
External links
- An annotated bibliography of his writings on baseball (http://www.uta.edu/english/tim/baseball/kinsella.html)
- A copy of a National Post article on Kinsella's Scrabble successes (http://groups.msn.com/stellsplace2/itsallaboutpoints.msnw)