Charles Foran was born in August 1960 in Toronto to a Franco-Ontarian mother and a father from an Ottawa Irish family. He attended Catholic elementary school and Brebeuf College, a Jesuit High School in North York. At St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, Foran studied English literature and history. After two years in Dublin, where he completed a Master’s in Irish Literature at University College, Dublin, he and his wife lived for a period outside New York city. In 1988 they relocated to Beijing, China, where Foran taught at a university and witnessed the 1989 democracy movement. Coming Attractions, an annual book highlighting new writers, published several of his early stories in 1987. In 1992 his short-story Boy Under Water was included in Best Canadian Stories.
Sketches in Winter, published by HarperCollins Canada in 1992, chronicled the aftermath of the June 4th massacre in Beijing from the perspective of a group of Beijing intellectuals.
In 1994 Foran published his first novel, Kitchen Music, set in Ireland, Canada and Vietnam. It was short-listed for the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Then living in Montreal, Foran served as contributing editor to Saturday Night magazine, writing regularly on Quebec, and as books columnist for the Montreal Gazette.
The Last House of Ulster appeared in 1995, the year Foran relocated with his family to Peterborough, Ontario. It told the story of the Irish Troubles from the point of view of a North Belfast family. Short-listed for the Governor General’s Award, the book won the QSPELL for best work of non-fiction by a Quebec writer. He was awarded the QSPELL again in 1997 for his second novel, Butterfly Lovers, a story set in Montreal and Beijing. He and his family spent 1997-1998 in Hong Kong. A French translation of Butterfly Lovers appeared in 1999 under the title Amants.
The Story of my Life (so far), a book about childhood, was published by HarperCollins in 1998. The novel House on Fire followed in 2001. It takes place in a country modeled on Tibet, and in Hong Kong. In 2000 Foran also contributed a chapter on Canada to The Rough Guide to World Music. He returned to China with his family in 2001, living there for two more years. As well as making documentaries for the CBC radio program IDEAS on subjects ranging from Asian martial arts cinema to Indian writing, he served on the organizing committee for the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival. In 2005 Foran published the novel Carolan’s Farewell, set in 18th century Ireland. That same year HarperCollins issued a 10th anniversary edition of The Last House of Ulster, with a new preface by the author.
In spring 2008 a collection of his travel and literary essays, Join the Revolution, Comrade, was published by Biblioasis. Half the pieces in the book originally appeared in The Walrus. As well as being a contributing editor to The Walrus, Foran is also a contributing reviewer for The Globe and Mail.
His sports, travel and literary journalism has been published in magazines and newspapers in Canada, the US, and the UK, including TIME, GQ, The Utne Reader, Toronto Life, and Canadian Geographic. His 2000 piece The Trials of Marty McSorley was awarded gold at the National Magazine Awards.
In 2006 Foran signed with Knopf Canada to write a biography of Mordecai Richler. The book, while not authorized, is being written with the cooperation of the Richler family. It is scheduled to appear in 2009 or 2010.
His literary papers are housed in the archives at Bata Library, Trent University.
Foran is Canadian writer who has 8 books in printand is a “regular contributor” to The Globe and Mail.
