Douglas Coupland was born on a Canadian Air Force base near Baden-Baden, Germany, on December 30, 1961. In 1965 his family moved to Vancouver, BC, where he still resides, now in a house designed by Ron Thom. Coupland has studied art and design in Vancouver, at the Emily Carr School for Art and Design; in Milan, Italy; and Sapporo, Japan.
His first novel, Generation X, was published in March of 1991, and spoke to thousands of people entering the work force (or not) for the first time but confronted with the consequences of the excessive spending of their parents. It was in this book that the term "McJob" first appeared, referring to the only positions available during the economic recession of the early nineties, and much in demand by everyone, including highly educated, already jaded, apathetic twenty-somethings—the protagonists of his story.
Since then he has published nine novels and several non-fiction books in 35 languages and most countries on earth. Some bestsellers include Microserfs, Miss Wyoming, All Families are Psychotic and City of Glass. He has written and performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, England, and in 2001 resumed his practice as a visual artist, with exhibitions in spaces in North America, Europe and Asia.
In 2005 the film version of Souvenir of Canada hit the screens, which adapted the two books, Souvenir of Canada and Souvenir of Canada 2, and followed the author/artist/performer on a tour of his home and native land. A TV series (13 one-hour episodes) based on his best-selling novel, jPod is currently airing on the CBC. His most recent novel is The Gum Thief.
Although the entries stop in 2006, there are some gems such as "Things I've Learned from Touring" on Douglas Coupland's New York Times blog.
