Douglas Coupland donates archive to UBC

Writer and artist Douglas Coupland, credited with popularizing the term Generation X with his novel of the same name, has donated his archives to the University of British Columbia.

"I am honoured that UBC has accepted my papers," said Coupland in a statement released on Thursday. "I hope that within them, people in the future will find patterns and constellations that can't be apparent to me or to anyone simply because they are there, and we are here.

"The donation process makes me feel old and yet young at the same time."

The author will also receive an honorary degree from UBC on May 27.

'Very comprehensive'

In total, the 48-year-old Vancouver resident donated 122 boxes of records dating back to 1980 including photos, manuscripts, visual art, fan mail, press clippings, letters and audio/visual material.

Ralph Stanton, head of the university's special collections, called the materials "very comprehensive," thanking Coupland for his generosity.

Coupland, though best known as a novelist, is also an accomplished artist, furniture designer, playwright, filmmaker and journalist.

He burst onto the literary scene in 1991 with Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture about three 20somethings who are grappling with their slack lives and marginal jobs. The book was revived this year as one of five novels in contention for CBC Radio's annual Canada Reads competition.

He's written 19 books, including Life After God, Shampoo Planet, Girlfriend in a Coma, Eleanor Rigby, jPod and The Gum Thief.   Jpod was turned into a CBC TV series that aired in 2008.

His non-fiction works include two Souvenir of Canada photo essay books and Terry — The Life of Canadian Terry Fox.