In 2018, Edugyan released Washington Black, which was long-listed for that year's Man Booker Prize.Įdugyan lives in Victoria, British Columbia, and is married to novelist and poet Steven Price. In April 2012, Half-Blood Blues also won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Again, alongside deWitt, Half-Blood Blues was also shortlisted for the 2012 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.

She was one of two Canadian writers, alongside Patrick deWitt, to make all four award lists in 2011. Published in 2011, Half-Blood Blues was shortlisted for that year's Man Booker Prize, Scotiabank Giller Prize, Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and Governor General's Award for English language fiction. She spent some time as a writer-in-residence in Stuttgart, Germany, which inspired her to write another novel, Half-Blood Blues, about a mixed-race jazz musician in World War II-era Europe who is abducted by the Nazis as a 'Rhineland Bastard.' She studied creative writing at the University of Victoria and Johns Hopkins University before publishing her debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, in 2004.ĭespite favourable reviews for her first novel, Edugyan had difficulty securing a publisher for her second fiction manuscript.

Currently-lives in Victoria, British ColumbiaĮsi Edugyan is a Canadian novelist, born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, to Ghanaian immigrant parents.

Awards-Giller Prize Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.

Education-University of Victoria Johns Hopkins University.

Half-Blood Blues is a story about music and race, love and loyalty, and the sacrifices we ask of ourselves, and demand of others, in the name of art. When they are invited to attend the film’s premier, Sid’s role in Falk’s fate will be questioned and the two old musicians set off on a surprising and strange journey.įrom the smoky bars of pre-war Berlin to the salons of Paris, Sid leads the reader through a fascinating, little-known world as he describes the friendships, love affairs and treacheries that led to Falk’s incarceration in Sachsenhausen. Hot Time Swingers band members Sid Griffiths and Chip Jones, both African Americans from Baltimore, have appeared in a documentary about Falk. He was twenty years old, a German citizen.

Their young trumpet-player Hieronymus Falk, declared a musical genius by none other than Louis Armstrong, is arrested in a Paris cafe.

The Hot Time Swingers, a popular jazz band, has been forbidden to play by the Nazis.

Author of half blood blues