University of Manitoba - Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture - Warren Cariou
Warren Cariou
  

 

Warren Cariou is a writer and Professor of English at the University of Manitoba. He received a BA(Hons) from the University of Saskatchewan and an MA and PhD from the University of Toronto (1998). In 1999 he published a book of short stories: The Exalted Company of Roadside Martyrs with Coteau Books. This was followed up in 2002 with his memoir Lake of the Prairies, which gained him a wider audience. It won the 2002 Drainie-Taylor Prize for Biography and was shortlisted for the Charles Taylor Prize. In 2005 he served on the jury for the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize. He is currently working on a novel titled Exhaust.

Warren was one of three featured authors in Coming Attractions '95, and has had short stories appear in Stag Line: Stories by Men and Due West, both published by Coteau Books. As well, his fiction was awarded a CBC Literary Competition Prize in 1991.

Warren was awarded a 2008 Fulbright Visiting Chair Award.  Canada-U.S. Fulbright Visiting Research Chairs are awarded to prominent Canadian and American scholars who wish to conduct research, work with faculty and graduate students, and if they choose, offer guest lectures and teach while at select American and Canadian universities.  Dr. Cariou undertook his studies at Arizona State University (ASU) from January to July 2009.  Among other things, he worked on his novel-in-progress, The Hummingbird Cloak, which is partly set in the American southwest. 

In 2008, Warren was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Narrative, Community and Indigenous Cultures.

In conjuction with Neil McArthur, Warren released a documentary film in 2009 entitled Land of Oil and Water

Warren grew up on a farm near Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, a place he describes beautifully in Lake of the Prairies. He has worked as a construction labourer, a technical writer, and a political advisor. He now teaches Aboriginal Literature at the University of Manitoba.