Mark Blagrave

1956-

Mark Blagrave (novelist and playwright) was born in Niagara-on-the-Lake and raised in Southern Ontario and Bermuda before finishing high school in Saint John, New Brunswick. After earning his BA at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, and his MA and PhD from the University of Toronto, he returned to teach at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John and then, for twenty years, at Mount Allison University. In 2009, he returned to Ontario as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Science at Huron University College, where he stayed until 2016 when he settled back in New Brunswick in St Andrews By-the-Sea. He wrote his thesis on Playwriting in the Maritime provinces, 1845-1903 (1985).  Blagrave wrote and directed Reversing Follies. In 2004 he won the Imasco Paul Paré Medal and Awards of Excellence (Mount Allison University).  He has written We happy few: a play (2003), Silver Salts (ca. 2008), Salt in the Wounds (2014), and Lay Figures (2020). His short stories have appeared regularly in Canadian periodicals such as The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, and The New Quarterly. Silver Salts, his first novel, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth First Novel Award (Canada and Caribbean) for 2008.

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Saint John, Sackville, Saint Andrews

Archival Material