David Chariandy facts for kids

Quick facts for kids David Chariandy
Chariandy in 2019
Born	David John Chariandy 1969 (age 54–55) Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Novelist and academic
Alma mater	Carleton University York University
Period	2000s–present
Notable works	Soucouyant (2007); Brother (2017)

David John Chariandy (born in 1969 in Scarborough, Ontario) is a Canadian writer and academic, presently working as a Professor of English literature at the University of Toronto. His 2017 novel Brother won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and Toronto Book Award.

Biography

Chariandy's parents immigrated to Canada from Trinidad in the 1960s. He was born in 1969 in Scarborough, Ontario. His father is from South Asian descent, whereas his mother is African. They were both working-class immigrants. His surname represents his Tamil and South Indian origins from his father's side.

Chariandy has a Master of Arts from Carleton University and a PhD from York University. For many years he lived in Vancouver and taught in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University. In 2024 he joined the faculty of the University of Toronto as a Professor in the Department of English.

In his work, he explores the truest meaning of origins and birthplace for immigrants and their children growing up in another part of the world but still belonging to another.

Chariandy's family includes his wife and two children: a son and a daughter.

Recurring themes and cultural contexts

Chariandy's novels are set in Scarborough, an eastern region of Toronto, Ontario. This area is known for its immigrant heavy population and has been sometime stigmatized by a reputation for crime, although statistics do not support this perception.

Chariandy told the Toronto Star:

If I’m honest, I always wanted to write a story that evoked the complexities of growing up young and Black in Scarborough...Throughout my entire life growing up in Scarborough and returning to it even as a young adult, I always felt so discomforted by the negative stories of Scarborough that would circulate in the newspapers and tabloids and sometimes by word of mouth, among people who really didn’t know Scarborough that well.

His novels offer up a story of Scarborough that admit "challenges, but tell that bigger story of life and vitality that you don’t always see in headlines."

His non-fiction book I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter to My Daughter was inspired by both a racist incident he experienced while at a Vancouver restaurant with his three-year-old daughter and then, years later, by the Quebec City mosque shooting in 2017.

Chariandy's novel Brother, the 2017 winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize was optioned for film, and went into production in fall 2021 under the direction of Clement Virgo. The film, Brother, premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, and won 12 Canadian Screen Awards at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023.

Soucouyant has also gone into development as a feature film, slated to be directed by Ian Harnarine.

Awards and honors

In 2019, alongside Danielle McLaughlin, Chariandy won the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, a "global English-language awards that call attention to literary achievement and provide writers with the opportunity to focus on their work independent of financial concerns." The award provided him $165,000 to support his writing.