Patrick Roscoe

Patrick Roscoe is a Canadian novelist, short story writer and actor.[1]

Patrick Roscoe
Born1967
Trail, BC
Occupationshort story writer, novelist
NationalityCanadian
Period1980s-present
Notable worksBirthmarks, God's Peculiar Care, The Lost Oasis

Early years

Roscoe was born in Trail, British Columbia, Canada [2][3] and grew up in Tanzania,[4] England,[3] Port Hardy, Victoria and Vancouver.[2] Roscoe moved from Canada to California in 1981.[2] He later lived in Toronto, Seville, and Madrid.[2]

Career

His first book, Beneath the Western Slopes, was released by Stoddart in 1987.

Birthmarks, published in 1990,[5][6] was noted for its unconventional subject matter, addressing themes of loneliness, desperation and survival among prostitutes, gay men and drug addicts who were living on the margins of conventional society.[6]

On the promotional tour for Birthmarks, he received publicity for claims of having previously worked as a male prostitute.[7] He later disavowed the prostitution claim, telling The Globe and Mail in 1991, "I thought, if I'm going to do [the book tour], I'm going to act, I'm going to become one of the characters in the book, I'm not going to tell anything that's the truth because that's none of (the interviewer's) business."[4] He has claimed to have no friends, no hobbies, no spouse, no lovers, no children, and no interests outside writing,[3] regarding isolation as being important to him as a writer.[4] While living in Madrid in 1991, he told The Globe and Mail that although he wrote in English, he spoke only Spanish in his daily life and told no one that he was a writer, passing instead as a student of Spanish.[4]

Despite the uncertainty about Roscoe's own sexual orientation raised by his disavowal of the prostitution claims and the relative lack of similar themes in his later work, the LGBT themes in Birthmarks have made it an important milestone in the history of LGBT literature in Canada; it is the subject of an essay by Andy Quan in the 2010 book The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered.[8]

In his 1991 novel, God's Peculiar Care, Roscoe imagined a group of misfits obsessed by the tragic life of actress Frances Farmer.[1][2][4][9] The Edmonton Journal called Roscoe "a real humdinger of a young writer."[9] The Calgary Herald called him "prodigiously gifted."[10]

He released a short story collection, Love Is Starving for Itself, in 1994[10][11] and a second novel, The Lost Oasis, in 1995.[3] Another short story collection, The Truth About Love, followed in 2001, and the novel The Reincarnation of Linda Lopez appeared in 2003. The Laboratory of Love, released in 2013, was his first book in a decade.[12]

Stephen Henighan discusses Roscoe as one of a group of writers whose stories "eschew historical participation in favour of a turning inward or a retreat into a kind of eternal present."[13]

Awards

In 1996, he won a Western Magazine Award for his short story "The Last Casanova of Regina", originally published in Grain.[14]

In 2008, he was one of 10 finalists in the Okanagan Short Story Contest.[15]

He won first place in the short-story division of CBC Radio's literary competition in 1990.[16]

Bibliography
  • Beneath the Western Slopes (1987, short fiction)
  • Birthmarks (1990, short fiction)
  • God's Peculiar Care (1991, novel)[1]
  • Love is Starving for Itself (1994, short fiction)
  • The Lost Oasis (1995, novel)
  • The Truth About Love (2001, short fiction)
  • The Reincarnation of Linda Lopez (2003, novel)
  • The Laboratory of Love (2013, short fiction)

References
  1. Shelley, Peter (2010-11-05). Frances Farmer: The Life and Films of a Troubled Star. McFarland. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7864-4745-9. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  2. Marke, Andres (29 June 1999). "Frances Farmer's world slips into God's Peculiar Care". Vancouver Sun.
  3. Jackson, Jenny (18 June 1995). "Writes of Passage (profile)". Ottawa Citizen.
  4. Smith, Stephen (4 June 1991). "'The whole idea, for me, is working alone' IN PERSON"Secrecy and isolation are important to writer Patrick Roscoe, who denies having any friends and who has kept on the move in the last 10 years, living in Canada, Spain, the United States and Mexico". The Globe and Mail.
  5. Heward, Burt (17 February 1990). "Birthmarks horror; Antisocial child (book review)". Ottawa Citizen.
  6. Charles Foran, "There's more to Roscoe than his unusual line of work". Montreal Gazette, February 10, 1990.
  7. "Writer's street-life past gets him attention". Vancouver Sun, January 27, 1990.
  8. "The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered Edited by Tom Cardamone". The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, May 4, 2013.
  9. Scotten, Neil (14 July 1991). "Tough, brilliant second novel is devoid of posturing; The illusions of Hollywood are dissected in swirling mixture of video prose and eccentric characters (book review)". Edmonton Journal.
  10. Fertile, Candace (7 January 1995). "Love and Human Ties Infuse Daily Life". Calgary Herald.
  11. Doyle, John (16 December 1994). "Wonders unfold in Roscoe's magical stories BOOK REVIEW / This storyteller interweaves tales of small-town boredom with episodes of sprawling surrealism - a difficult narrative trick". The Globe and Mail.
  12. "Laboratory's love potions won't appeal to all; Although an uncomfortable read, author crafts dark narratives with deft writing". Vancouver Sun, October 26, 2013.
  13. Beattie, Steven (21 January 2011). "Book Review: The Beggar's Garden, by Michael Christie". National Post. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  14. "Georgia Straight, Western Living win mag awards". Vancouver Sun, September 12, 1996.
  15. "Okanagan short fiction contest shortlists 10 finalists". 10 April 2008.
  16. "Prize keeps wolf from writer's door". Toronto Star, January 17, 1990.
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