Mordecai Richler estate funds Concordia writer-in-residence program

Author, actor and playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald has been named Concordia University's first Mordecai Richler writer-in-residence.

"I have been called. I didn't claim this throne. I approach humbly," she told CBC News.

The family of the famous Montreal scribe recently announced a donation to the university for the purpose of creating the writer-in-residence program.

MacDonald will be mentoring students in the creative writing program and also composing digital dispatches for The Walrus magazine website inspired by Richler's Montreal.

"I'm thrilled. I loved Mordecai, and am delighted to be here surrounded by his books. it`s a fitting tribute not just because of the objects, but also because it's at the heart of a creative writing program at Concordia about the present and the future and about these students are going forward and carrying his legacy and mine. Goodness knows we have a very rich literary tradition in Canada and this is part of it," she said.

Richler attended Sir George Williams University in the 1950s, although he never graduated. Sir George Williams merged with Loyola College in 1974 to become Concordia University.

In 2013, Concordia University opened the Mordecai Richler Reading Room, which houses the author's desk and some of his papers and mementos.

"Concordia was the ideal place to keep Mordecai's memory alive. Creating the Richler Writer-in-Residence program is a logical next step because it will provide mentorship as well as inspiration," said Richler's widow Florence in a Concordia news release.

In leafing through his passport, MacDonald remarked on how much travelling Richler had done.

"He lived a good literary life which means he spent a lot of time eating and drinking with a lot of people around the world and nothing fuels literature like that kind of conviviality," she said. 

MacDonald met Richler once at a reading at Convocation Hall in Toronto, which she describes as like opening for the Stones. But, she said, she never got to develop a friendship with him.  

"I always felt like there was a great big laugh and conversation awaiting us so maybe this is how I'm continuing my friendship with him," MacDonald said.

Startin this fall, MacDonald will work out of the reading room, meeting with students from the university's creative writing program and writing about the experience of sitting at Richler's desk.

MacDonald has received acclaim for her novels including Fall on Your Knees, which was short-listed for the Giller Prize, and The Way the Crow Flies which was a finalist for the Giller.

MacDonald is also the host and narrator of Doc Zone on CBC Television.