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Brief Biography
Alfred Silver has been a playwright, an actor and a songwriter, as well as a short-order cook, nude model and day labourer. He grew up in various places across the Canadian prairies. A former playwright in residence at the Manitoba Theatre Centre, he was a member of the Playwrights' Union of Canada's negotiating team for the first standard contract with the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres; helped develop Manitoba's Playwright Development Program; and was a founding member of the Manitoba Association of Playwrights. He now lives with his wife in a farm house at Ardoise, Nova Scotia, and devotes his time to researching and writing historical novels or anything else someone will pay him to write.
Alfred has written radio plays for the CBC programs Clean Sweep for The Mystery Project, Vanishing Point, Different Drummer, Cranks, Rebel Angels of Song, and Stereo Morning. He has acted in television and theatre. Alfred has composed songs, performed solo and in bands, on acoustic guitar or electric bass, and recorded two albums of original songs, Shadows in 1981 and They Don't Make 'Em Anymore in 1999.
Selected List of Publications
- The Boy Kelsey. Great Plains, 2009. ISBN 978-1894283892.
- Selected as one of The Canadian Children's Book Center's Best Books for Kids & Teens 2010.
- "A fantastic read, full of adventure and trickery, written in an intelligent, fast-paced prose. I would definitely reccomend reading The Boy Kelsey." - What If? Magazine
- "Alfred Silver is a well-known author of historical novels for adults. This book expands his audience to teenagers, with adventures and a little romance to interest them, and plenty of historical information and social customs worked into the story." - Prairie Fire Magazine
- "Anyone at all interested in the fur trade, or life in the bush, or any other aspect of early Canadian history will find this a fun and enjoyable read." - CM Magazine
- "...a well written and exciting account of one of Manitoba's most famous explorers." - Winnipeg Free Press
- Eulalie. Traduit de l'anglais par Julien Béliveau et Andrée Villemaire. Éditions du Carre, 2008, ISBN 978-2-923335-17-9
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- A Place Out of Time. Great Plains, 2007. ISBN 978-1894283740.
- Winner of the Manitoba Historical Society Margaret McWilliams Award.
- "A lively historical novel that continues the saga of Alfred Silver's Red River Trilogy [...]The Inuit language differntiates between knowing about something, and knowing something based on personal experience. This novel about our own hometowm comes close to bridging that gap." - Winnipeg Free Press.
- "I loved the book [...] I liked the history, I liked the love story, the family ties [...] there were so many layers in this book that I really enjoyed." - Bookmarks, CBC Radio.
- "[A] vivid portrait of a lost Canadian world [...] deeply felt and persuasive [...] fast-paced and exciting" - The Globe & Mail
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- Back Roads of Membertou County. Pottersfield Press, 2006. ISBN 1-895900-81-6.
- "Silver has written many plays [...] and many novels [...] so can set a scene, introduce characters and pace a plot. [He] keeps the subplots rolling, and the ending is very sweet." - The Globe & Mail
- "The second in a series of novels about banker turned charwoman Bonnie Marsden and her husband Big Ben Marsden [...] is tinged with more darkness than its predecessor. [Silver] is perhaps best known for his historical novels [...] but he certainly can entertain with a good mystery." - Halifax Chronicle Herald
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- Clean Sweep. Pottersfield Press, 2004. ISBN 1-895900-64-6.
- "Back when I was a fascinated listener to Clean Sweep on The Mystery Project, I thought that Silver nailed perfectly the complicated dynamics of life in rural Nova Scotia. In a novel, where he has even more leeway to explore and develop such dynamics, he nails it even more perfectly." - Halifax Chronicle Herald
- Eulalie La Tour: Acadie 1755. Trait d'union, 2004. ISBN 2-89588-085-9.
- Acadia: A Novel. Pottersfield Press, 2004. ISBN 1-895900-62-X.
- "Silver gives their story all the sweeping majesty it deserves [...] He's obviously done much research, but he never once shows it off, never once bores us with needless exposition." - Halifax Chronicle Herald.
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- Three Hills Home. Nimbus Publishing, 2002. ISBN 1-55109-401-0.
- "Silver is, hands down, one of the best authors of historical fiction out there" - Halifax Chronicle Herald.
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- The Haunting of Maddie Prue. Great Plains Publications, 2000. ISBN 1-894283-10-4.
- "This is one of those really good books that give reviewers fits. It has Druid and Celtic religious rites, moves around in time, and has a [possibly] reincarnated heroine who has been murdered, in the same way, at least twice [...] I found it highly readable, with great characters and a good crime plot." - Margaret Cannon, "Crime Picks." The Globe and Mail, May 13, 2000.
- "Its convoluted plot is worthy of anything Minette Walters could dream up, and you'll be exhausted but satisfied by the end." - Halifax Chronicle Herald
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- Acadia. Ballantine/Random House, 1997. ISBN 0-345-37950-5.
- Winner of 1997 Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize.
- Keepers of the Dawn. Ballantine/Random House, 1995. ISBN 0-345-37268-9.
- Where the Ghost Horse Runs. Ballantine/Random House, 1991. ISBN 0-345-36734-0.
- Lord of the Plains. Ballantine/Random House, 1990. ISBN 0-345-35600-4.
- Finalist, Best Novel, Western Writers' of America, Spur Award Competition, 1990.
- Red River Story. Ballantine/Random House, 1988. ISBN 0-345-32692-X.
- A Savage Place. Ballantine/Random House, 1983. ISBN 0-345-28672-3.
- Good Time Charlie's Back in Town Again. Avon, 1978. ISBN 0-380-39065-5-175.
- Translation published by Gallimard as Pas de quoi pleurer?
Selected List of Productions
- Gulliver. An adaptation from Swift for Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, 1992.
- The Red River Valley. Manitoba Theatre for Young People, 1989.
- Clearances. The Manitoba Theatre Centre, 1984 (Adapted for television, CKY-TV, 1984).
- Climate of the Times. The Manitoba Theatre Centre, 1983.Published in New Canadian Drama 4, Borealis Press, Ottawa, 1986. ISBN 088887-912-1 (bound). ISBN 088887-914-8 (paperback).
- Adapted for television, West Hawk Productions, CKY-TV, 1983
- Thimblerig. The Manitoba Theatre Centre, 1982. Published by Turnstone Press, Winnipeg, 1982. ISBN 0-88801-067-2.
- Saturday Night. Manitoba Theatre Workshop, 1980.
- Idiot Strings. Manitoba Theatre Workshop, 1979.
- More of a Family. Manitoba Theatre Workshop, 1978. Published in Eight Plays for Young People, NeWest Press, Edmonton, 1984. ISBN 0-920316-90-5 (bound); ISBN 0-920316-88-3 (paperback).
Selected List of Radio Plays
- Gottingen, CBC Sunday Schowcase
- Rebel Angels of Song, six-part series for Definitely Not The Opera, writer and co-host.
- Clean Sweep. A 30-part series for The Mystery Project, CBC, 1997.
- Nominated for Top Ten Award, 1998, Writers' Guild of Canada.
- The Man Who Thought Ian Tyson was God, CBC Vanishing Point.
- The Unnamed Planet Tetralogy, four programs for CBC Vanishing Point.
- The Great Stork Derby, CBC Different Drummer.
- The Transcontinental Barrel Roller, CBC Cranks.
- Beginner's Luck, CBC Stereo Morning.
