About Charlotte

Charlotte Gray is one of Canada’s best-known writers, and author of eight acclaimed books of literary non-fiction. Born in Sheffield, England, and educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, she began her writing career in England as a magazine editor and newspaper columnist. After coming to Canada in 1979, she worked as a political commentator, book reviewer and magazine columnist before she turned to biography and popular history.

Charlotte's most recent book is Gold Diggers, Striking It Rich in the Klondike. In 2008, Charlotte published Nellie McClung, a short biography of Canada’s leading women’s rights activist in the Penguin Series, Extraordinary Canadians. Her 2006 bestseller, Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell, won the Donald Creighton Award for Ontario History and the City of Ottawa Book Award. It was also nominated for the Nereus Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize, the National Business Book Award and the Trillium Award. Her previous five books, which include Sisters in the Wilderness, The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill, Flint & Feather, The Life and Times of E. Pauline Johnson and A Museum Called Canada, were all award-winning bestsellers.

Charlotte appears regularly on radio and television as a political and cultural commentator. In 2004 she was the advocate for Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, for the CBC series: The Greatest Canadian. She has been a judge for several of Canada’s most prestigious literary prizes, including the Giller Prize for Fiction, the Charles Taylor Prize for Non-fiction and the Shaunessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

Charlotte has been awarded five honorary doctorates, from Mount St. Vincent University, Nova Scotia, the University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, York University and Carleton University.

An Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of History at Carleton University, Charlotte is the 2003 Recipient of the Pierre Berton Award for distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian history. She is currently chair of the board of Canada’s History Society, which publishes the magazine Canada’s History (formerly The Beaver.) Charlotte is a member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Charlotte lives in Ottawa with her husband George Anderson, and has three sons.

Journalism Awards and Prizes

2007 National Magazine Awards Honourable Mention
(Chatelaine profile of Naomi Klein)
2006 Western Magazine Gold Award
(Beaver article on magazine’s history)
2000 National Magazine Awards Honourable Mention
(Canadian Geographic feature on early photographer)
1998 Ottawa Life Sciences Council Print Media Award
(Saturday Night article on artificial heart research)
1996 National Magazine Award
(Saturday Night columns)
1996 Robertine Barry prize, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women
(Chatelaine feature on sexuality)
1991 Canadian Authors Award
(Saturday Night article on the Canadian Mint)
1985 Elizabeth Bagshaw Media Award
(Chatelaine feature on contraceptive research)
1968 Catharine Pakenham Award for most promising journalist in the U.K. under 30

Book Awards and Nominations

Gold Diggers

Long-listed for the B.C. Non-fiction Award
Shortlisted for the City of Ottawa Book Award for Non-fiction

Reluctant Genius

Winner of the Donald Creighton Award for Ontario History
Winner of the City of Ottawa Book Award for Non-fiction
Shortlisted for the Nereus Writers’ Trust Non-fiction Prize
Shortlisted for the National Business Book Award
Shortlisted for the Trillium Award

The Museum Called Canada

Winner of Canadian Authors Association Lela Common Award for Canadian History

Flint & Feather

Winner of University of British Columbia Medal for Biography
Winner of Drummer-General’s Award
Shortlisted for Writers’ Trust Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize
Shortlisted for the City of Ottawa Book Award for Non-fiction

Sisters in the Wilderness

Winner of Floyd S. Chalmers Award in Ontario History
Winner of Canadian Booksellers Association Award for Best Non-fiction Book
Shortlisted for the City of Ottawa Book Award for Non-fiction

Mrs. King

One of Canada's Top Forty Non-fiction Books (CBC 2011)
Winner of Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-fiction
Winner of Canadian Authors Medal for Non-fiction
Winner of Heritage Toronto Commendation
Shortlisted for Governor-General’s Award for Non-fiction
Shortlisted for the City of Ottawa Book Award for Non-fiction

Appointments

2005-present Adjunct Research Professor, Department of History, Carleton University
April-June, 2008 Writer-in-residence, Berton House, Dawson City, Yukon

Honours

2009 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
2009 Algonquin College Media Hall of Fame
2007 Member of the Order of Canada
2007 Honorary Doctorate, York University
2006 Honorary Doctorate, Queen’s University
2005 Honorary Doctorate, University of Ottawa
2003 Pierre Berton Award for Distinguished Achievement in Popularizing Canadian History
1995 Honorary Doctorate, Mount St. Vincent University, N.S.