Mark
Canada
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Family
Parents: Alan
and Mary Canada
Wife: Lisa Henry Canada Daughter: Esprit Nueva Canada Son: Will Ash Canada Homes
Indianapolis,
IN (1967-1985, 1989-1991) Bloomington,
IN (1985-1989)
Fort
Wayne, IN (1991-1992) Chapel
Hill, NC (1992-1997) Laurinburg,
NC (1997-present)
Careers
Journalist
(1989-1992) Graduate
student (1992-1997) English professor
(1997-present)
Chronology 1967 Aug. 21: born in
Indianapolis, IN
1985 June:
graduated from Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, IN 1989 May:
graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN 1989 August: became
copy editor for Johnson County Daily Journal in Franklin, IN 1989 Sept. 23: married
Lisa Henry 1991 September: became
copy editor for News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, IN 1992 August: entered
graduate school at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1997 May: earned
Ph.D. in English
1997 January: became English
professor at University of North Carolina at Pembroke 1998 Jan. 18:
daughter Esprit born
June 28: son
Will born 2004 May: traveled
Lewis and Clark Trail 2005 June: renovated
historic Stewart-Malloy House in Laurinburg, NC
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I already have
experienced enough to fill a lifetime. I somehow managed to find the
woman of my dreams: lively, creative, supportive, and altogether beautiful
Lisa, who has become both my wind and my anchor. When we were married
in 1989, I was naive enough to think that I would never fall in love
again. Then came Esprit, born in 1998, and Will, born in 2001. A
person can conceive of some portion of romantic love even before experiencing
it. But there is no knowing the love of a child until one arrives.
When Essie was born, so was another part of me. No longer just a man, I
am a father—and guide and protector and inspiration. The prospect is a
little frightening, but mostly it is elevating. It is my favorite kind
of experience—and opportunity. My family has become
my life's work, but I have a second job that I cherish, as well. As an
English professor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, I have the
great pleasure of playing with words all day--reading them, writing them,
saying them, studying them. As a kid reading and writing stories back
in Indianapolis, I never imagined such a wonderful career. I went to
Indiana University in 1985 to study journalism, but picked up a second major
in English while I was there. Although I enjoyed three rewarding years
as a copy editor—first at the Johnson County Daily Journal in Franklin,
Indiana, and then at the News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Indiana—I felt a pull
from literature, and that second major became my first professional
love. In 1992, Lisa and I moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where I
enrolled in graduate school at the University of North Carolina. After
I graduated with my Ph.D. in 1997, I went to work as an English professor at
UNCP, where I teach courses in American literature, the English language, and
writing. In addition to teaching, I
write articles and give presentations on a variety of subjects, including
Edgar Allan Poe and distance education, and I serve my university on a number
of committees. My job at UNCP has
done more than provide a channel for my professional energy. It also
has given my family and me the opportunity to live in North Carolina.
Lisa and I came south from Indiana because we wanted a warmer climate and a
different culture. We found even more. For me in particular, the
Southeastern United States feels like my real home, one I had to go out and
find. I miss some things about Indiana--my parents and in-laws, the
Indiana University campus, downtown Bloomington, even the snow--but mostly I
love the Southeast, particularly the glorious Blue Ridge mountains and
elegant Charleston, South Carolina. “To have read the
greatest works of any great poet," Algernon Charles Swinburne said,
"to have beheld or heard the greatest works of any great painter or
musician, is a possession added to the best things of life.” To the best things in my life—my family,
my health, and my faith—I have been blessed with the opportunity to
experience many of the world’s greatest books, paintings, and symphonies,
along with many wonders of nature.
More exciting than what lies behind me, however, is what lies
ahead. There remains a vast world of opportunities in my family, my
work, and my life, and I eagerly look forward to seizing those opportunities
as I strive to live and to give as fully as I possibly can.
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More than a
decade ago, before we were married, Lisa gave me a simple clay coffee mug as
a gift. Although I don't drink coffee and don't collect things, especially
mugs, the message she painted on the side revealed how well she knew me even
then. It reads: "The glory of God is man fully alive." For me,
being fully alive means immersing myself in this glorious world: wading in a
cold creek in the Appalachian Mountains, eating a deli sandwich in Central
Park, reading by a single light in a dark room, discussing books with
interesting students or colleagues, pouring a Mozart symphony into my ears or
singing along with Hank Williams, catching my little girl after she soars
down a slide, listening to my little boy laugh, and doing almost anything--except
shop for fabric--with my wife.