He taught English and creative writing at the University of Windsor, Ontario.
He received a PhD from the University of Notre Dame.
In 2008 he was made an officer of the Order of Canada.
When he was 10, his family moved to a farm on Cape Breton Island. The island was the inspiration for his works. Each summer, he returned to Cape Breton and a cliff-top cabin where he did much of his writing.
His only novel, "No Great Mischief," won the 2001 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, then worth $172,000.