Foran Wins Taylor Prize

Author and journalist Charles Foran has won the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction for his biography of Canadian literary lion Mordecai Richler. 

The win of one of Canada’s top non-fiction prizes brings Richler’s name back into the spotlight again following the release of the film Barney’s Version, based on a Richler novel. Paul Giamatti, who plays Barney, recently won a Golden Globe award for his performance.       …read more

Why Mordecai Richler isn’t being studied in Canadian universities

Judged by his profile in the media and entertainment industries, no Canadian author alive or dead is as popular today as Mordecai Richler, the subject of a thick new biography (Mordecai: The Life and Times by Charles Foran), an upcoming documentary (Mordecai Richler: The Last of the Wild Jews), as well as the posthumous inspiration for the soon-to-be-released film adaptation of Barney’s Version.

Judged by his profile on university courses that teach Canadian literature, however, Mordecai Richler barely exists. No other author so widely admired both in his day and after is less conspicuous in the emerging canon of Canadian literature – a continuing irritant his admirers are eager to redress….read more