Member Profile

Please note: All profiles are member-generated.

Peter Midgley

Photo: Matt McCready 2017

Peter Midgley writes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays, and children’s literature. He also edits, translates and tells stories (folk tales, children's stories, stories for adults, huge whoppers). He wrote his first book when he was twelve. It was awful, and he hopes his writing has improved since then. When he is not writing, he imagines the past life of his parrot—he thinks it may have been a pirate. He gets lost in his own city. Best to avoid travel with him entirely.

In the course of thirty years working as a festival director, freelance editor, university lecturer, managing editor, acquisitions editor, clerk of court, bartender, janitor and door-to-door salesman, he has acquired an honours degree in Afrikaans and Dutch literature, and an MA and PhD in English. It’s astounding what people leave in the garbage.

He has opined about Writing, Editing, Creativity, African Literature and Politics, the TRC and other topics in far-flung places—from Botswana, Canada, Namibia, South Africa, Switzerland and Tanzania, to the United Kingdom and the United States of America. He is working on the rest of the alphabet.

E-mail: peter@midgley.ca
Phone number:
c/o Writers' Union of Canada

Publications

let us not think of them as barbarians. NeWest Press, September 2019
Unquiet Bones. Wolsak & Wynn, 2015
Counting Teeth: A Namibian Story. Wolsak & Wynn, 2014
perhaps i should / miskien moet ek. Kalamalka Press, 2010
The Diary of Iris Vaughan (2nd ed). Juvenilia Press, 2010
Grappling with the Beast: Indigenous South(ern) African Resposnes to Colonialism. Brill, 2010
Umlindo omde kaVusi [isiXhosa translation of Vusi’s Long Wait]. Maskew Miller Longman, 2007
The Diary of Iris Vaughan. Juvenilia Press, 2004
B for Bullfrog. Maskew Miller Longman, 2001
Vusi's Long Wait. Maskew Miller Longman, 2001
Sol Plaatje: An Introduction. NELM, 1997
B for Bullfrog. Kagiso, 1996
Vusi's Long Wait. Kagiso, 1996
Thuli's Mattress. Cambridge University Press, 1996
Namlish (Not Not Namibia’s Not the Nine O’Clock News). Produced, University of Namibia, 1990
Archetypes. Produced, Grahamstown National Festival for the Arts, South Africa, 1988

Awards

Toronto Fringe New Play Contest 2017 (1st Runner-up) for Barbarians, 2017
Shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize (Shortlist) for Unquiet Bones, 2016
Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence for For editing Kimmy Beach, The Last Temptation of Bond, 2014
The Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence for For editing Jalal Barzanji, The Man in Blue Pajamas, 2012
IBBY/ASAHI International Award for Literacy Promotion 1996 for Thuli's Mattress, 1996
Links:
Website
http://www.midgley.ca
Eligible for National Public Readings Program :
Yes

WITS

Presentation Description

I present story sets on African folk tales, as well as my own stories, for children and adults.

Presentation Length:
Storytelling: 45 mins; Workshop length variable.
Genre:
Poetry, Fiction, Storytelling, Leadership
Grades:
K-12; Adult
Audience size:
Max. 60
Workshop Description:

I offer a range of workshops on editing, writing, creativity, and leadership. I can tailor workshops to school audiences (Grades 7-12) and to literary festivals and conferences. I also present workshops on creativity and leadership to businesses. Duration varies from 2 hours to full day, as required.

Northern OAC WITS:
No
GST:
GST applicable