Audrey Thomas

Thomas was born 17 November 1935 in Binghamton, New York.^[2] She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in Massachusetts in 1957,^[4] then studied at St. Andrews University in Scotland before teaching in England.^[2] In 1959, she immigrated to Canada,^[5] where she received a Master of Arts degree from University of British Columbia in 1963.^[2][4] In 1994, she received an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.^[4]

From 1964 to 1966, Thomas lived in Ghana, and some of her stories are set there and in other distant places.^[6][7]

She published her first story, "If One Green Bottle...", in 1967.^[2]

Thomas lived in Edinburgh, Scotland in the 1980s, and wrote articles for Saturday Night Magazine.^[8]

Beginning in 1990, Thomas was a visiting professor at Concordia University in Montreal.^[4] She also spent time as writer-in-residence at the University of Victoria, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and David Thompson University Centre.^[4]

In 2014, she published her eighteenth book, Local Customs.^[9]

From 1984 to 1986, Thomas received the Canada-Scotland Writer's Literary Fellowship,^[2] and in 1987, she won the Marian Engel Award for her body of work.^[2] In 1989, she receive the Canada-Australia Literary Prize.^[2] In 2003, she won the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award,^[2] and in 2008, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.^[10]