Writer in Residence Archives
Most months Open Book feature a virtual writer-in-residence, who shares original, literary-focused thoughts with our readers. From writing tips to interviews, craft confessions to publishing tidbits, our writers-in-residence bring wildly creative points of view and new perspectives. They are amongst the most acclaimed authors in Canada today, including both exciting up and coming voices and established authors you know and love. Check out the archives to find your favourite, and stay tuned for our next great WIR!
The writer-in-residence position is offered by invitation only. Unfortunately, we're not currently accepting enquiries or applications for the WIR program.
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Our Interview with AlisonAugust 2020Alison Wearing
Alison Wearing is the bestselling author of Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter, an Indigo Top 50 pick shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Prize and longlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize, Honeymoon in Purdah: ...
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Our Interview with IrfanJuly 2020Irfan Ali
Irfan Ali is a poet, essayist, writer, and educator. His short poetry collection, Who I Think About When I Think About You was shortlisted for the 2015 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Accretion is ...
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Our Interview with HelaineJune 2020Helaine Becker
Helaine Becker is an award-winning author who has written over eighty books for children. Her picture books include You Can Read, illustrated by Mark Hoffmann; Sloth at the Zoom, illustrated by Orbie; ...
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Our Interview with DerekMay 2020Derek Mascarenhas
Derek Mascarenhas is a graduate of the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing Program, a finalist and runner-up for the Penguin Random House of Canada Student Award for Fiction, ...
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Our Interview with DaniApril 2020Dani Spinosa
Dani Spinosa is a poet of digital and print media, an on-again-off-again precarious professor, the managing editor of the Electronic Literature Directory, and a co-founding editor of Gap Riot Press, a ...
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Our Interview with LeslieMarch-April 2020Leslie Shimotakahara
Leslie Shimotakahara's memoir, The Reading List, won the Canada-Japan Literary Prize, and her fiction has been shortlisted for the KM Hunter Artist Award. She has written two critically acclaimed novels, ...
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Our Interview with NadiaFebruary 2020Nadia Hohn
Nadia L. Hohn is a dynamic "story lady" who has presented to audiences in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jamaica, and Trinidad. From the age of six years old, Nadia ...
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Our Interview with ErinNovember 2019-December 2019Erin Frances Fisher
Erin Frances Fisher (MFA UVic, AVCM pedagogy/performance) is a writer and musician in Victoria, BC. Her short story collection THAT TINY LIFE was published by House of Anansi Press, March 2018, was ...
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Our Interview with HasanOctober 2019-November 2019Hasan Namir
Iraqi-Canadian author Hasan Namir graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BA in English and received the Ying Chen Creative Writing Student Award. He is the author of God in Pink (2015), which ...
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Our Interview with NancySeptember-October 2019Nancy Jo Cullen
Nancy Jo Cullen is the fourth recipient of the Writers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT Emerging Writers. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and her short story ...
