Brian Doyle (writer)


Brian Doyle is a Canadian writer of novels and short stories. His children's books have been adapted into movies and plays. Many of his stories are drawn from his experiences growing up in the Ottawa area. He was awarded the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2005 and was twice a finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
His writings evoke a strong sense of location, reflecting urban Ottawa and the Gatineau Valley. Angel Square and Easy Avenue are set in Ottawa in the 1940s and 50's; Spud Sweetgrass represents Ottawa in the early 1990s. Uncle Ronald and Covered Bridge draw on Brian Doyle's childhood memories of the Ottawa.

Early life

Doyle was born and grew up in an ethnically-diverse section of Ottawa, Ontario, spending summers with his family at a log cabin on the Gatineau River near Low, Quebec. His upbringing was made difficult by a father who drank excessively and a mother worn out from caring for his mentally disabled older sister. He attended Glebe Collegiate Institute, where he participated in sports and wrote poetry for the school yearbook, but also fought, stole, and skipped school. He began writing short stories, some of which he submitted to magazines. Doyle then attended Carleton University in Ottawa, where he majored in journalism, and met his future wife Jackie Aronson. Before graduation, Doyle won a prize for an essay he wrote about the Gatineau River Valley.

Career

After graduation, Doyle worked as a reporter for the Toronto Telegram. He soon left this job to teach high school in Ottawa. He took courses at University of Ottawa towards a master's degree in literature, but did not write a thesis.
While working as a teacher, Doyle wrote a column for a local newspaper and published a short story in the literary magazine Fiddlehead. After he and his wife began to participate in local theater, Doyle began writing plays for his students. He also wrote an article criticizing teacher training which was quoted in The Globe and Mail. Doyle was hired as head of Glebe Collegiate's English department. During his time at Glebe he wrote and produced a number of original musical productions with his colleague Stan Clark, Head of Glebe's Music Department. They were: Oh My Gods; Labour Pains; To Hull and Back; It's Nicer Inverness'; Chipwagon; Up the Gatineau and One More Time. Doyle retired from teaching in 1991.

Writing

Doyle's first book for young readers, Hey, Dad!, written for his daughter Megan, was published Groundwood Books in 1978.
Doyle's first young-adult novel, Up to Low, was set in Quebec's Gatineau Hills, and based on his childhood experiences at his family's cabin. Angel Square is set in the Lower Town area of Ottawa, and portrays the futility of the racial tensions between the neighbourhood's children. One of the characters in the story is based on Doyle's mentally handicapped sister Pamela.
Doyle's continued to write novels for teens and young adults: Uncle Ronald, a story about hundred-year-old "Crazy Mickey"; Easy Avenue, about an impoverished orphan growing up with an elderly relative; and Covered Bridge, a ghost story about moral injustice and historical preservation.
Doyle also wrote two comic mysteries about a half-Irish, half-Ojibway teen, Spud Sweetgrass and Spud in Winter.

Personal

Doyle married Jackie Aronson, and they had two children, Megan and Ryan. In 2013 he lived in Chelsea, Quebec.

Awards and honors

You Can Pick Me up at Peggy's Cove was made into a film directed by Don McBrearty and into a video released by Beacon Films, Inc., in 1982. Peggy's Cove, Angel Square and Easy Avenue have been released as audio books. Meet the Author: Brian Doyle was released as a short film in 1987. Angel Square was made into a film directed by Ann Wheeler and released by the National Film Board of Canada in 1990. Pure Spring, Boy O'Boy and Easy Avenue were adapted for the stage by students at Glebe Collegiate, and Up to Low was performed as a play Featherston Public School.
In 2015, Janet Irwin's adaptation of Up to Low was staged at the Ottawa Children's Theatre.

Works