Charles "Red" Lillard (February 26, 1944 – March 27, 1997) was an American-born poet and historian who spent much of his adult life in British Columbia and became a Canadian citizen in 1967. He wrote extensively about the history and culture of British Columbia, Southeast Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
Early life and education
Lillard was born in Long Beach, California and raised in Ketchikan, Alaska. His parents made a living from fishing. Lillard attended the University of British Columbia, earning a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts.Charles Lillard's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
Career Lillard published several books of poetry; his work was also included in literary publications and anthologies. His collection Shadow Weather was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award.
Lillard wrote extensively, and also collected and published stories, about the history of Canada's west coast."Father Brabant and the Hesquiat of Vancouver Island" Study Sessions, 50 (1983), 553-68. CCHA. His book Seven Shillings a Year: the History of Vancouver Island won a BC Book Award in 1986."Seven Shillings a Year: the History of Vancouver Island". Winners:The Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing. BC Book Awards website Lillart also wrote many stories of his travels and experiences in an informal style; he has been criticized for including names of people in his reminiscences without explaining who they were."Inside Outdoors". by Eric Ormsby, Books in Canada.
In 1978, 1979, and 1981 Lillard was co-editor (with Robin Skelton) of three themed issues, "The West Coast Renaissance" of the literary magazine The Malahat Review. In 2016 a foundation was set up in Lillard's name which presents an award each year to an author whose non-fiction work has appeared in The Malahat Review.
He died of cancer, at his home in Oak Bay, British Columbia in 1997. He left his wife, writer Rhonda Batchelor Lillard, and two children, Benjamin (b. 1984) and Joanna (b. 1986).
Bibliography
Poetry Cultus Coulee - 1971 Drunk on Wood - 1973 Jabble - 1975 Voice, My Shaman - 1976 Poems - 1979 (with Doug Beardsley) Circling North - 1988 Shadow Weather: Poems, Selected and New - 1996
Fiction A Coastal Range - 1984Kenneth W.Meadwell, "Filters of Time" review of A Coastal Range. in Poets & Politics. Special issue of Canadian Literature 105 (Summer 1985): 140-142. (nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize)
Non-fiction Seven Shillings a Year - 1986 Fernwood Files - 1989 (with J. Ellis) The Brother, XII, B.C. Magus: A Quest for The Brother, XII - 1989 (with Ron MacIsaac and Don Clark) Land of Destiny - 1991 (with Michael Gregson) Just East of Sundown - 1995 A Voice Great Within Us: The Story of Chinook - 1998 (with Terry Glavin)"Can We Still Speak Chinook?". The Tyee, Nicholas Klassen, 10 January 2006
Anthologies In the Wake of the War Canoe - 1981 Dreams of Freedom: Bella Coola, Cape Scott, Sointula - 1982 Warriors of the North Pacific: Missionary Accounts of the Northwest Coast, The Skeena and Stikine Rivers, and the Klondike, 1829-1900 - 1984 Nootka - 1986 The Ghostland People - 1989 The Call of the Coast - 1992
References
External links
Charles Lillard at BC Bookworld Charles Lillard fonds at University of Victoria, Special Collections