Novels

• The Invention of the World — 1977
• The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne — 1979 (winner of the Governor General's Award for English Language Fiction)
• The Honorary Patron — 1987
• Innocent Cities — 1990
• The Macken Charm — 1995
• Broken Ground — 1998
• Distance — 2003
• The Master of Happy Endings - 2010

Short stories

• Spit Delaney's Island —1976

        - "By The River"

• The Barclay Family Theatre — 1981
• Damage Done by the Storm — 2005

Children's literature

• Left Behind in Squabble Bay — 1988

where is the story "After the Season"

Non-fiction

• Over Forty in Broken Hill — 1992
• A Passion for Narrative: A Guide for Writing Fiction — 1994

Biography

Jack Hodgins grew up in Merville, a small town in the Comox Valley of British Columbia. He left home for Vancouver, where he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Education. Hodgins spent the next 18 years of his career teaching English in Nanaimo, back on Vancouver Island. In 1968, his first piece of literary work was accepted by a publication, and the exposure allowed himthe chance to expand his work in print. With the publication of his first book of short stories, “Spit Delaney’s Island” (1976), and his first novel “The Invention of the World” (1977), Jack Hodgins was well on his way to becoming a recognized name in Canadian literature. He began receiving short-term teaching positions at universities throughout Canada, including Simon Fraser University and the University of Ottawa. (http://www.nwpassages.com/bios/hodgins.asp). His passion to educate led him around the world- he lectured in countries such as Japan, Finland, Norway, Germany, Spain, and Australia. In 1983, he accepted a position as a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Victoria. He and his family settled themselves in Victoria and stayed through until the time of his retirement from teaching, in 2002. Hodgins continues his life in Victoria today and occasionally gives lectures on writing and speaks at a workshop in Mallorca, Spain annually. Hodgins has received much recognition for his work including the BC Book Prize for “Spit Delaney’s Island,” the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence, and the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, a play based on several short stories from his book “The Barclay Family Theatre” was made into an opera by composer Christopher Donnison and premiered on stage in Victoria, BC. His life has been commemorated in a National Film Board Film entitled Jack Hodgins' Island.http://www.jackhodgins.ca/

Literature and the Environment

• Hodgins' close relationship with the environment stems from his personal experiences within the temperate rainforests and seasides of British Columbia. Places like Comox Valley, Nanaimo, and Victoria, as well as his travels abroad, have influenced his writing and the contents of his books. His characters in “Innocent Cities” are based on actual residents of the city of Victoria in the late 1900s, as well as people he met on his travels to Australia. “The Invention of the World” is based on the legendary cult leader Brother Twelve and his followers from outside Nanaimo, BC. “The Macken Charm”, set in 1956, illustrates the Comox Valley with characters inspired by influential people in his life. He based the many settings in “Spit Delaney's Island" around places he has lived or previously travelled.

In an email interview with students from the University of Victoria, Hodgins elaborates on place affecting his writing, and uses “Macken Charm” as his example.

“In The Macken Charm the family gathers (after a family funeral) at the site of a burnt hotel owned by the family. This place exists still. My own memories go back to playing as a child in that hotel when it was no longer in use. I knew that my parents began their married life in that hotel...the old uncle who owned it asked them to move in and look after it and them. My mother learned to cookon a stove big enough for a hotel dining room full of guests! All of this is in the novel, pretty well just as it happens, though the characters are fictitious replacements for the originals. The beach, the trees, the roads, the cars of 1956, the store, the funeral parlour, the bridge over the river in Courtenay, the glacier...they're all there. The story is fiction but the place is real.”

Hodgins, Jack. E-mail. 28 November, 2008.

Awards and honours

2009 Member of the Order of Canada

2006 "Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence"

2006 Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award "for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia"

2004 Honorary D.Litt, University of Victoria

2004 Distance: short-listed for the inaugural City of Victoria book award

2004 Distance: long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin Award

2000 Broken Ground: the Torgi Talking Book of the Year

2000 Broken Ground: long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin Award

2000 Broken Ground: the Ethel Wilson Prize for fiction in British Columbia

1999 Broken Ground: The Drummer General Award (Different Drummer Bookstore)

1999 Broken Ground: jury choice as "best novel of the year" in Quill and Quire

1999 Broken Ground: in Globe and Mail "top ten"

1999 Elected to the Royal Society of Canada

1998 Honorary D.Litt, Malaspina University-College

1996 "Finding Merville": (Comox Valley Record) first place in Neville Shanks Memorial Award for Historical Writing.

1995 Honorary D.Litt, University of British Columbia

1988 The Honorary Patron: short listed for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour

1988 The Honorary Patron: the Commonwealth Literature Prize (Canada-Caribbean region)

1986 The Canada-Australia prize

1979 The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne: The Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction

1978 The Invention of the World: short listed for the Books in Canada First Novel Award

1978 The Invention of the World: the Gibson's First Novel Award

1977 Spit Delaney's Island: short listed for the Governor General's Award

1977 Spit Delaney's Island: the Eaton's B.C. Book Award

1973 "After the Season": the President's Medal, University of Western Ontario

Periodicals

Short stories and articles have been published in several magazines in Canada, France, Australia, and the US, including:

Northwest Review

Antigonish Review

Wascana Review

Descant (Texas)

Capilano Review

Prism: international

Paris Intercontinental

Saturday Night

Vancouver

Westerly

Story

Toronto Life

North American Review

Event

Canadian Fiction Magazine

Sound Heritage

Alphabet

Viva

Journal of Canadian Fiction

The Canadian Forum

Forum (Houston)

Island No.2

Meanjin

The Literary Half-yearly

Overland

Anthologies

Teaching Short Fiction, edited with Bruce Nesbitt: (ComCept Publishing)

Voice and Vision, edited with W.H. New: (McClelland and Stewart)

The Frontier Experience: (Macmillan of Canada, 1975)

The West Coast Experience: (Macmillan of Canada, 1976)

BEGINNINGS: samplings from a long apprenticeship: novels which were imagined, written, re-written, rejected, abandoned, and supplanted:(Grand Union Press, 1983)