Allan Stratton
Stratton was born in Stratford, Ontario, and began his professional arts career while he was still in high school when James Reaney published his play The Rusting Heart in the literary magazine Alphabet.
at The Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama, University of Toronto (1974), he appeared with regional theatres across the country, originating a range of roles in new works by playwrights such as James Reaney, Rex Deverell and Sharon Pollock.
Stratton returned to Canada in the late 1980s, and moved to Montreal, where he wrote the comedy-of-bad-manners Bag Babies, which opened at Theatre Passe Muraille in 1990.
A female van Helsing, a comic look at Victorian mores, and a recreation of the novel's sweep distinguish this adaptation which was nominated for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play, Large Theatre Division, 1995.
The results of this work include two novels released in fall 2000: The Phoenix Lottery, a social satire about art, commerce and untidy family relationships, published by the Riverbank Press; and Leslie's Journal, a young adult novel about sexual abuse in adolescent dating relationships, published in Canada and in the United States by Annick Press, and in foreign translation in Korea, Slovenia, France, and Germany.
Set against the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, this adult/young adult crossover novel is being published and distributed to countries including the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Brazil, India, Japan, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the African francophonie.
It was published to acclaim by HarperCollins in the US and Canada, by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag in Germany, Van Goor Uniebok in the Netherlands, Editora Pruno in Brazil, and Bayard Jeunesse in France.
Aside from his novels and plays, Allan has written for international events, including the evenings for Stephen Sondheim, Robert Rauschenberg and Guy Laliberté at The Harbourfront Centre World Leaders' Festival, Toronto.
In private life, he enjoys reading, weightlifting, and travel; his interests have taken him to Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean and throughout Europe and North America.
For several years, he volunteered at a Manhattan soup kitchen, and has undergone Santerian purification rituals, witnessed an exorcism in Botswana, and slept between rail cars behind the former Iron Curtain.
His work is published internationally by HarperCollins, Faber and Faber, Penguin Books, Samuel French, The Riverbank Press, Annick Press, Deutscher Taschenburg Verlag, Allen and Unwin, The Chicken House, Bayard Jeunesse, Asunaro Shobo, Hsiao Lu Publishing, Random House: Joong Ang, Zalozba Mis, Van Goor, Thuong Huyen Books, Hangilsa Publishing Company, Editora Planeta, Editora Pruno, Sinnos, Scholastic Canada, Coach House Press, and Playwrights Canada, among others, and has been widely anthologized.
