Background

Bonnie Burnard was born on January 15, 1945 in Petrolia, Ontario, Canada. She grew up in Forest, Ontario and moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, in the late 1970s. She had four brothers and was the youngest in her family. Her family sold eggs at the Toronto market.

Education

In 1967, Burnard received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Western Ontario.

Career

From 1988 to 1990 Bonnie Burnard worked as a literary officer at the Saskatchewan Arts Board. She also served as a Writer in Residence at the University of Western Ontario and was a guest lecturer at writing and literary conferences.

Burnard taught at the Humber School for Writers, the University of British Columbia's summer creative writing program Booming Ground, and at the University of Windsor as an adjunct professor in the writing department. She also worked as a lawyer at the Writers' Trust of Canada, at the Public Lending Right Commission, and at the Saskatchewan Writers Guild.

Burnard's first novel A Good House was published in 1999. It was a bestseller in Canada. Her second novel Suddenly was published in 2009.

Achievements

• Bonnie's novels were published in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and in twelve other countries. In 1989 her first novel won the Commonwealth Writers Prize. In 1995 she was awarded the Marian Engel Award, and in 1999, she won the Giller Prize for her novel, A Good House.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Women of Influence

    (Just how much influence do women have? If they're the cha...)

    1988
  • A Good House

    (This richly layered first novel tells the story of the in...)

    1999
  • Casino & other stories 1994

Connections

Bonnie Burnard married Ronald Burnard, an executive at London Life Insurance, in 1973. The couple lived for more than a decade in Regina, Saskatchewan and raised their three children - Alexandra, Melanie, and David. The marriage had ended a few years earlier, before she moved back to Southwestern Ontario in 1992, living briefly in Strathroy-Caradoc and later moving to London, Ontario.

child:

Alexandra Burnard

child:

Melanie Burnard

child:

David Burnard

husband:

Ronald Burnard