Dr. Douglas R. Cherry, dean of Arts, presents the Copland Prize in Arts to Mark J.C. Abley at Convocation held in Physical Education gymnasium.

Bio/Historical Note: Mark J.C. Abley was born in England in 1955. When he was a small child his family moved to Canada, and he grew up in northern Ontario, southern Alberta and Saskatoon. Abley’s father Harry was for many years organist-choirmaster at St. John’s Cathedral and Third Avenue United Church, and several theatres in Saskatoon. Abley studied literature at the University of Saskatchewan and, after winning a Rhodes Scholarship in 1975, at St. John’s College, Oxford. He won prizes for his poetry while a student there, and began to write full-time after moving to Toronto in 1978. He has been a contributing editor of both Maclean's and Saturday Night magazines, and a frequent contributor to The Times Literary Supplement. His writings show an interest in endangered languages. He published a memoir, The Organist: Fugues, Fatherhood, and a Fragile Mind, in 2019.