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 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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May 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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April 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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February 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 ...
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Our Interview with ZalikaJune 2019-July 2019Zalika Reid-Benta
Zalika Reid-Benta is a Toronto-based writer whose work has appeared on CBC Books, in TOK: Writing the New Toronto, and in Apogee Journal. In 2011, George Elliott Clarke recommended her as a “Writer ...
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May 2019-June 2019Alisha Sevigny
Alisha Sevigny is the author of YA novels, Summer Constellations, (winner of CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens 2018), and Kissing Frogs. Her historical adventure series, Secrets of the Sands, launches ...
