W.P. Kinsella’s Followers (229)

W.P. Kinsella

Born

in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

May 25, 1935

Died

September 16, 2016

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Sports, Nonfiction

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William Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC was a Canadian novelist and short story writer. His work has often concerned baseball and Canada's First Nations and other Canadian issues.

William Patrick Kinsella was born to John Matthew Kinsella and Olive Kinsella in Edmonton, Alberta. Kinsella was raised until he was 10 years-old at a homestead near Darwell, Alberta, 60 km west of the city, home-schooled by his mother and taking correspondence courses. "I'm one of these people who woke up at age five knowing how to read and write," he says. When he was ten, the family moved to Edmonton.

As an adult, he held a variety of jobs in Edmonton, including as a clerk for the Government of Alberta and managing a credit bureau. In 1967, he moved to Victoria, Britis William Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC was a Canadian novelist and short story writer. His work has often concerned baseball and Canada's First Nations and other Canadian issues.

William Patrick Kinsella was born to John Matthew Kinsella and Olive Kinsella in Edmonton, Alberta. Kinsella was raised until he was 10 years-old at a homestead near Darwell, Alberta, 60 km west of the city, home-schooled by his mother and taking correspondence courses. "I'm one of these people who woke up at age five knowing how to read and write," he says. When he was ten, the family moved to Edmonton.

As an adult, he held a variety of jobs in Edmonton, including as a clerk for the Government of Alberta and managing a credit bureau. In 1967, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia, running a pizza restaurant called Caesar's Italian Village and driving a taxi.

Though he had been writing since he was a child (winning a YMCA contest at age 14), he began taking writing courses at the University of Victoria in 1970, receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing there in 1974. He travelled down to Iowa and earned a Master of Fine Arts in English degree through the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1978. In 1991, he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from the University of Victoria.

Kinsella's most famous work is Shoeless Joe, upon which the movie Field of Dreams was based. A short story by Kinsella, Lieberman in Love, was the basis for a short film that won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film – the Oscar win came as a surprise to the author, who, watching the award telecast from home, had no idea the film had been made and released. He had not been listed in the film's credits, and was not acknowledged by director Christine Lahti in her acceptance speech – a full-page advertisement was later placed in Variety apologizing to Kinsella for the error. Kinsella's eight books of short stories about life on a First Nations reserve were the basis for the movie Dance Me Outside and CBC television series The Rez, both of which Kinsella considers very poor quality. The collection Fencepost Chronicles won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 1987.

Before becoming a professional author, he was a professor of English at the University of Calgary in Alberta. Kinsella suffered a car accident in 1997 which resulted in a long hiatus in his fiction-writing career until the publication of the novel, Butterfly Winter. He is a noted tournament Scrabble player, becoming more involved with the game after being disillusioned by the 1994 Major League Baseball strike. Near the end of his life he lived in Yale, British Columbia with his fourth wife, Barbara (d. 2012), and occasionally wrote articles for various newspapers.

In the year 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of British Columbia.

W.P. Kinsella elected to die on September 16, 2016 with the assistance of a physician. ...more

Combine Editions
W.P. Kinsella’s books

Average rating: 3.94 · 24,114 ratings · 2,009 reviews · 57 distinct works • Similar authors

	Shoeless Joe 3.97 avg rating — 16,264 ratings — published 1982	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Iowa Baseball Confederacy 3.83 avg rating — 2,388 ratings — published 1986 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dance Me Outside 4.14 avg rating — 643 ratings — published 1977 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Thrill Of The Grass 3.95 avg rating — 630 ratings — published 1984 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Box Socials 3.50 avg rating — 626 ratings — published 1991 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Moccasin Telegraph and Other Stories by W.P. Kinsella, Thomas Kinsella 4.13 avg rating — 380 ratings — published 1983 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fencepost Chronicles 4.17 avg rating — 322 ratings — published 1986 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Dixon Cornbelt League and Other Baseball Stories 3.77 avg rating — 351 ratings — published 1993 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa: Stories 4.03 avg rating — 321 ratings — published 1984 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Miss Hobbema Pageant 4.18 avg rating — 179 ratings — published 1989 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by W.P. Kinsella…

Quotes by W.P. Kinsella (?)

“Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get”
― W.P. Kinsella

tags: happiness, success

3943 likes

“Baseball is the most perfect of games, solid, true, pure and precious as diamonds. If only life were so simple. Within the baselines anything can happen. Tides can reverse; oceans can open. That's why they say, "the game is never over until the last man is out." Colors can change, lives can alter, anything is possible in this gentle, flawless, loving game.”
― W.P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe

61 likes

“Hardly anybody recognizes the most significant moments of their life at the time they happen.”
― W.P. Kinsella

47 likes

See all W.P. Kinsella's quotes »

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Movie March 2022
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Coraline by Neil Gaiman (write-in)

2 votes, 18.2%

Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer

1 vote, 9.1%

Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle (write-in)

1 vote, 9.1%

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (write-in)

1 vote, 9.1%

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1 vote, 9.1%

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

1 vote, 9.1%

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

1 vote, 9.1%

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

1 vote, 9.1%

Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman (write-in)

1 vote, 9.1%

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

1 vote, 9.1%

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0 votes, 0.0%

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0 votes, 0.0%

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Nightbooks by J.A. White (write-in)

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Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (write-in)

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Book One: Moon by Aaron Ehasz

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The Giver by Lois Lowry

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Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella

0 votes, 0.0%

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

0 votes, 0.0%

The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs

0 votes, 0.0%

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Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

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0 votes, 0.0%

11 total votes

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W.P. Kinsella’s Followers (229)

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