Fonds F0193 - Rick Salutin fonds

Rick Salutin (1942- ), journalist, playwright and novelist, was born in Toronto and educated at Brandeis University, Massachusetts, in Near Eastern and Jewish Studies (B.A.), Columbia University, New York, in religion (M.A.), and undertook Ph.D. studies in philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. After returning to Toronto in 1970, Salutin worked as a trade-union organizer and journalist and has written on a variety of issues for magazines such as Harper's, Maclean's, Toronto Life, Weekend, Saturday Night, Quest, TV Times, Today, and This Magazine, of which he was an editor and is now a contributing editor. He wrote a weekly column for the Globe and Mail between 1991 and 2010 and has been a lecturer of Canadian Studies at the University of Toronto since 1978. As a dramatist, Salutin has written and produced a series of plays including Fanshen (1972), 1837: The Farmers' Revolt (1973), which won a Chalmers Outstanding Play Award, The Adventures of An Immigrant (1974), The False Messiah (1975), Les Canadiens (1977), which won a second Chalmers Award, Nathan Cohen: A Review (1981), Joey (1981), and S: Portrait of a Spy (1984). Other titles of Salutin's novels, collections of essays and political commentaries include Marginal Notes: Challenges to the Mainstream (1984), Spadina Avenue (1985), A Man of Little Faith (1988), Waiting For Democracy: A Citizen's Journal (1989), Living in a Dark Age (1991), and The Age of Improv: A Political Novel of the Future (1995), and The Womanizer (2002). In recognition of his achievements, Salutin has been awarded many honours including the National Magazine Award for Comment and Criticism, 1981 and 1983; Toronto Arts Award for Writing and Publishing, 1991; and the National Newspaper Award for Columnist at the Globe and Mail, 1993. Salutin held the Maclean Hunter Chair in Communications Ethics at Ryerson (1993-1995) and is presently a media analyst for the CBC and a columnist for the Toronto Star.