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Day receives Alumni Award
The UVic Libraries and the University of Victoria Alumni Association are pleased to invite you to a special event recognizing 11 outstanding members of the UVic alumni community, as part of Alumni Week 2015.
The UVic Distinguished Alumni Celebration will be held from 7:30-9 pm on February 4th at the Hotel Grand Pacific.
Distinguished alumni from across academic disciplines will be recognized. With such an array of expertise and accomplishments, it promises to be an inspiring evening.
On this occasion, the UVic Libraries are proud to honour David Day (BA 1976 - Creative Writing) as its 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient.
David Day is the author of more than 40 books of poetry, ecology, history, mythology, fantasy, and children's literature. Internationally, he is best known for his literary criticism on J. R. R. Tolkien and his works. His books have won numerous literary awards and have been selected as "Books of the Year" by Time Magazine, New Scientist, Parents Magazine and the Observer. His books have sold over 4 million copies and have been translated into 20 languages.
Day, born and raised in Victoria, was a UVic Creative Writing graduate under the mentorship of Robin Skelton. His first book, 'The Cowichan' (based on his logging camp journals) was published in 1975. In 1976 he worked for the Toronto publisher, McClelland and Stewart, and two years later moved to London, England where he published 'A Tolkien Bestiary', the first of his six international best-sellers on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Day's landmark book on animal extinction, the 'Doomsday Book of Animals' with an introduction by the Duke of Edinburgh, was selected in 1981 as a 'Book of the Year' by Time Magazine. This was followed by 'Whale War' 1987, 'Eco-Wars' 1988, and 'Noah's Choice' 1990. Day has also been an environmental columnist for Britain's Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Times and Punch Magazine.
In the 1994, he wrote the 'Lost Animals' British, a Japanese TV series of one hundred, five-minute documentaries on extinct species. It was narrated by Greta Scacchi and translated into 20 languages (currently on YouTube.) His 'Whale War' was also the basis of a British ITV documentary.
In 1994 and 1995, his 'Tolkien's Ring' and 'Quest for King Arthur' appeared: two of the five books with academy award-winning artist, Alan Lee. And in 2000, Day was dramaturg for the Royal Birmingham Ballet's millennium productions of 'Arthur I' and 'Arthur II'.
Day has also written nine illustrated children's books, while his children's novel, 'The Emperor's Panda', was runner-up for both the Governor General's Award and the National Library Award.
Day's CBC award-winning poems have been praised by the Canadian poets Earle Birney, Al Purdy and Margaret Atwood; while the late British poet laureate Ted Hughes wrote: "Day's poems are flight monologues - whirling kaleidoscopic surges through the weathers and times of his life.";
Most recently, he has published 'Nevermore: A Book of Hours' in 2012 and 'A Tolkien Dictionary' in 2013. His study of the life and works of Lewis Carroll, 'Decoding Wonderland', will appear in October 2015 to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.
The UVic Distinguished Alumni Celebration will be held from 7:30-9 pm on February 4th at the Hotel Grand Pacific.
Distinguished alumni from across academic disciplines will be recognized. With such an array of expertise and accomplishments, it promises to be an inspiring evening.
On this occasion, the UVic Libraries are proud to honour David Day (BA 1976 - Creative Writing) as its 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient.
David Day is the author of more than 40 books of poetry, ecology, history, mythology, fantasy, and children's literature. Internationally, he is best known for his literary criticism on J. R. R. Tolkien and his works. His books have won numerous literary awards and have been selected as "Books of the Year" by Time Magazine, New Scientist, Parents Magazine and the Observer. His books have sold over 4 million copies and have been translated into 20 languages.
Day, born and raised in Victoria, was a UVic Creative Writing graduate under the mentorship of Robin Skelton. His first book, 'The Cowichan' (based on his logging camp journals) was published in 1975. In 1976 he worked for the Toronto publisher, McClelland and Stewart, and two years later moved to London, England where he published 'A Tolkien Bestiary', the first of his six international best-sellers on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Day's landmark book on animal extinction, the 'Doomsday Book of Animals' with an introduction by the Duke of Edinburgh, was selected in 1981 as a 'Book of the Year' by Time Magazine. This was followed by 'Whale War' 1987, 'Eco-Wars' 1988, and 'Noah's Choice' 1990. Day has also been an environmental columnist for Britain's Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Times and Punch Magazine.
In the 1994, he wrote the 'Lost Animals' British, a Japanese TV series of one hundred, five-minute documentaries on extinct species. It was narrated by Greta Scacchi and translated into 20 languages (currently on YouTube.) His 'Whale War' was also the basis of a British ITV documentary.
In 1994 and 1995, his 'Tolkien's Ring' and 'Quest for King Arthur' appeared: two of the five books with academy award-winning artist, Alan Lee. And in 2000, Day was dramaturg for the Royal Birmingham Ballet's millennium productions of 'Arthur I' and 'Arthur II'.
Day has also written nine illustrated children's books, while his children's novel, 'The Emperor's Panda', was runner-up for both the Governor General's Award and the National Library Award.
Day's CBC award-winning poems have been praised by the Canadian poets Earle Birney, Al Purdy and Margaret Atwood; while the late British poet laureate Ted Hughes wrote: "Day's poems are flight monologues - whirling kaleidoscopic surges through the weathers and times of his life.";
Most recently, he has published 'Nevermore: A Book of Hours' in 2012 and 'A Tolkien Dictionary' in 2013. His study of the life and works of Lewis Carroll, 'Decoding Wonderland', will appear in October 2015 to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.
Submitted on January 8, 2015 in By David.
