Keith Maillard (born 28 February 1942, in Wheeling, West Virginia) is an American Canadian novelist, poet, and professor of creative writing at the University of British Columbia.
His Maillard grandfather and two Montreal-born uncles continued the family tradition of glass-blowing, working for Dominion Glass in Montreal and in Redcliff, Alberta.
Most reviewers were confounded by this strange book with its cross-gendered protagonists and weird events, but Two Strand River soon acquired a cult following, came to be labeled a classic of Canadian magic realism,[20][21][22] and has been republished twice.
[26] Reviewer David Homel assured readers that despite the novel's sixteenth-century Dutch choral mystery and Vancouver setting, "power and madness made in the USA is still at the heart of Maillard's creativity.
"[20][28][29][30][5] Called "a small masterpiece" by the Georgia Straight, Light in the Company of Women was published in 1993[31][32] and was runner-up for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
[33] Maillard's novel, Gloria (1999), was well received in Canada,[34] short-listed for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction,[35] and brought him national attention in the United States.
[56] The Toronto Globe and Mail selected Difficulty at the Beginning as one of the top books of 2006, calling it "a work of terrible beauty and grace, a masterpiece fit to contend with the best novels of the last century.
"[57][58] Reviewer Richard Helm describes the quartet as Maillard's "magnum opus and the keystone of a literary career that has flown largely under the Canadian radar."
[60] In its 80th anniversary edition in 2015, the Quill & Quire listed Maillard as one of Canada's "notable Canlit talent" along with other American-born anti-Vietnam-War authors, Philip Marchand, Jack Todd, Judith Merrill, Mark Frutkin, and William Gibson.
[61] In his novel Twin Studies (2018)—set in Vancouver, Medicine Hat, and Los Angeles—Maillard returns to the topic of gender fluidity that he first explored in Two Strand River in 1976.
"[65] The Vancouver Sun summarized Twin Studies as "that rare work: a story that grapples with difficult intellectual issues without ever abandoning the novelist's primary duty—compelling narrative.
[71][72][73][74] CBC Arts columnist and creative nonfiction author/editor Alicia Elliott writes that Maillard's memoir "gives us a model of not only self awareness and honesty but also, more importantly, healing.
“Through constellated fragments of memory, key moments in twentieth-century America, and the unfolding of an acclaimed literary life,” Justice writes, “The Bridge is the forthright, deeply moving memoir of a nonbinary writer coming of age and coming to self.”[77] Calling Keith Maillard “one of the finest English-language novelists in Canada today,” The Vancouver Sun writes that “Maillard understands his life through the lens of a lifelong struggle to know and accept his own identity off the simple-minded male/female binary.”[78] Rachel Giese, author of Boys: What It Means to Become a Man, views Maillard’s The Bridge as “a valuable addition to literature about the lives and histories of trans and non-binary people.”[79] Reviewer Margaret Goldik informs her readers that Maillard “recounts with impressive honesty not only his writing journey, but also his journey toward understanding his gender dysphoria.”[80] Maillard’s fifteenth novel, In the Defense of Liberty (2023), “expertly captures the ethos of the mid-1960s and explores threads of gender and sexuality, while holding up a mirror to the roots of modern-day American polarization.”[81] Reviewer Thomas McLeod writes that a “large share of the book is concerned with questions about how people interpret history, both within their university setting and in the fiery political climate of the Civil Rights era.
His full interview with journalist Kate Long covers topics ranging from growing up in West Virginia and settling in British Columbia, to writing, music, and history.