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Thomas Wharton is one of Alberta’s rising literary stars. His first novel, Icefields, published by NeWest Press in 1995, won the Banff Book Festival Grand Prize, the Writers Guild of Alberta (WGA) Best First Book Award and the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Canada and the Caribbean. His second novel, Salamander, was published by a top Canadian press, McClelland and Stewart, was nominated for the Governor General’s Award and Sunburst Award and won the WGA Georges Bugnet Award for novels. His short literary career has produced big results.

Born in Grande Prairie in 1963, Thomas Wharton has also lived in Edmonton, Calgary and Jasper. Not only has this travel given the author a broad view of the province, but has proven to be the inspiration for his first novel, Icefields. Set in Jasper at the beginning of the 20th century, the novel traces how the Victorian characters relate to the surrounding geography, specifically, the icefields of the book’s title.

Listen to Thomas Wharton discuss the importance of place, and its role in his novel, Icefields. Listen Now

Icefields came into being as the master’s thesis Wharton wrote while at the University of Alberta. During his studies in Edmonton (Wharton had also completed his bachelor of arts in Edmonton), he was able to study under the guidance of Rudy Weibe and Kristjana Gunnars, who supervised the writing of his thesis. After Edmonton, Wharton moved south to work on his PhD at the University of Calgary. Here, Wharton’s supervisor was Aritha van Herk and that thesis was to become his second novel, Salamander.

Thomas Wharton reads from his first novel, Icefields.
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In his formal training as a writer, Wharton has managed to work with some of Alberta’s best-known and well-regarded writers. He is an example of Alberta's new generation of writers, destined to carry the province’s literary arts into the future.