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Article: About Howard Norman.
- Article from:
- Ploughshares
- Article date:
- December 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Ploughshares, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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More than a few people have assumed that Howard Norman is a Canadian writer. It's no wonder, considering that most of his work--including his first two novels, The Northern Lights and The Bird Artist, both of which were nominated for the National Book Award--is set in Canada. In fact, Norman was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1949 to Russian-Polish-Jewish parents, and he went to elementary school in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
What led him north to Canada? "As a kid," Norman says, "I spent a lot of time in bookmobiles and libraries. I went to four different elementary schools. Libraries were the one continuity. And from early on, through books, I projected a life--I ...