Kaie Kellough (born 1975) is a Canadian poet and novelist.Ryan B. Patrick, "Griffin Poetry Prize winner Kaie Kellough plays with words and sound to write vivid poetry and fiction". CBC Books, April 29, 2020. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, raised in Calgary, Alberta, and in 1998 moved to Montreal, Quebec, where he lives.
Writing
Kellough has published three books of poetry, two audio recordings, one novel, and one collection of short stories. He is also a practitioner of vocal sound poetry. His work multiplies and layers voice, while exploring the fundamentals of language-production.
His experimental debut novel, Accordéon, takes the form of a transcript of someone being interrogated by three agents from a Ministry of Culture, and was a shortlisted nominee for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award.Mark Medley, "Finalists announced for Amazon.ca First Novel Award", The Globe and Mail, April 14, 2017. The novel was inspired by the conflict over the proposed Quebec Charter of Values. Writing for the Montreal Review of Books, Sara Spike calls it "a remarkable work of experimental fiction that pushes back against those who would forward a singular narrative of this unabashedly contradictory city, celebrating instead the messy multiplicity of Montreal."
Having mostly abandoned written poems in favor of sound work, Kellough only began to draw together the poems that would become Magnetic Equator after an encounter with Dionne Brand at a literary festival in 2017.
Bibliography
Poetry
Audio
Fiction
Awards
Kellough's poetry collection Magnetic Equator (2019) was shortlisted for the QWF A.M. Klein Award for Poetry that same year, and won the 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize."Kaie Kellough wins 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize for poetry collection Magnetic Equator". CBC Books, May 19, 2020. His short story collection Dominoes at the Crossroads (2020) was longlisted for the Giller Prize in 2020Deborah Dundas, "Thomas King, Emma Donoghue make the 2020 Giller Longlist in a year marked by firsts". Toronto Star, September 8, 2020. and the ReLit Award for short fiction in 2021,"38 books shortlisted for 2021 ReLit Awards". CBC Books, April 19, 2021. and won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction at the 2020 Quebec Writers' Federation Awards.Ryan Porter, "Kaie Kellough wins Quebec Writers’ Federation’s fiction prize". Quill & Quire, November 5, 2020. The book was a shortlisted finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award in 2021.Vicky Qiao, "Jack Wang wins $10K Danuta Gleed Literary Award for best first short story collection for We Two Alone". CBC Books, May 28, 2021.
He is the first person to be nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize in the same year. YearTitleAwardCategoryResult2011?Maple Leaf RagManitoba Book AwardsManuela Dias Design Award2017AccordéonAmazon.ca First Novel Award—2019Magnetic EquatorQWF A.M. Klein Award for Poetry—2020Griffin Poetry PrizeCanadaDominoes at the CrossroadsGiller Prize—Quebec Writers' Federation AwardsParagraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction2021Danuta Gleed Literary Award—ReLit AwardShort Fiction
References
External links
Profile at Griffin Poetry Prize Profile at the Academy of American Poets