Arts Celebrating Arts is an annual event to honour the achievements of alumni, faculty, staff and students. This year, the Faculty of Arts was pleased to bestow recognition on alumni Jeff Blair, (sports reporter, Globe and Mail sports reporter) and Guy Gavriel Kay (award-winning author of eleven novels published in over 25 languages).
Celebrated Alumni 2011
Guy Gavriel Kay – After earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the University of Manitoba, Kay moved to Oxford, England, to help Christopher Tolkien edit The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien’s unfinished manuscript. Mr. Kay returned to Canada to go to the University of Toronto, where he received his law degree in 1978, although he never practised law. From 1981 to 1989 he was principal writer and associate producer for CBC Radio’s The Scales of Justice. At the same time, Guy Gavriel Kay began writing, publishing and winning awards for his novels.
Mr. Kay’s first three novels, The Summer Tree (1984), The Wandering Fire (1986) and The Darkest Road (1986), comprise The Fionavar Tapestry. The trilogy chronicles the lives of five University of Toronto students caught in the conflicts of another world. Powered by dramatic pacing and lyric prose, the novels contain a density of detail and reflect the author’s knowledge of Celtic, Teutonic and Nordic mythology.
While The Fionavar Tapestry is high fantasy in the Tolkien tradition, most of Guy Gavriel Kay’s subsequent novels are historical fantasy, alternative versions of the past. Tigana (1990), for example, evokes Renaissance Italy and A Song for Arbonne (1992) is inspired by medieval Provence. The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995) is modelled on Moorish Spain. Byzantium in the 6th century AD is the backdrop for Kay’s two-volume The Sarantine Mosaic: Sailing to Sarantium (1998) and Lord of the Emperors (2000).
In his 2002 The Last Light of Sun, Mr. Kay fictionally transforms the 9th-century Viking invasions, during the time of Alfred the Great. Although Mr. Kay’s 2007 book, Ysabel, opens in modern-day Provence, the protagonists finds themselves caught in an ancient love triangle, doomed to repeat itself throughout time.
Under Heaven, Mr. Kay’s most recent work, spent two months on the national bestseller list in 2010. The novel is inspired by the glory of Tang Dynasty China in the eighth century, melding history and the fantastic into something both powerful and emotionally compelling. "A novel on the grandest narrative scale, encompassing the intimate details of individual lives in an unforgettable time and place." The American Library Association picked it as the best fantasy novel of 2010. Under Heaven has also been named as a top book of 2010 by The Globe and Mail, was one of the Washington Post’s best fiction and poetry picks of the year, and is nominated for the World Fantasy Award and for both the Aurora Award and the Sunburst Award in Canada.
Jeff Blair – completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Political Studies and a minor in History, and was also an active staff member and editor of The Manitoban. Mr. Blair has been a sports reporter since he was hired as a freelance university correspondent by the Winnipeg Free Press at the age of 21 while still a member of St. John’s College.
Mr. Blair worked his way up from a summer intern’s position to lead football writer and columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press before leaving for the Calgary Herald in1987. Two years later he was recruited to the Montreal Gazette to cover the Montreal Expos before joining the Globe and Mail as a national sports correspondent. He was promoted to a lead columnists’ position at the Globe and Mail in 2009, after spending 20 years covering baseball.
For the past year Mr. Blair has hosted the popular “Jeff Blair Show” on Sportsnet Radio/The Fan 590 in Toronto. He is guest-host of the nation’s most watched and listened to sports talk show, Prime Time Sports, a syndicated show broadcast in both Canada and the United States. Mr. Blair has also contributed to ESPN’s ‘Outside The Lines’, as well as Sports Illustrated and USA Today.
Mr. Blair, who has covered three Olympics and 13 World Series, was named to the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association’s media honor roll in January 2010 for “outstanding commitment to sports writing excellence”. He is a past honoree of the Associated Press Sports Editors for deadline reporting.
