Creative Writing 2011
Master of Fine Arts

Canisia also holds an M.F.A. At York, she won the President’s Prize for Poetry (ii) Sylvia Ellen Hearch Memorial Award. Her first poetry collection is Voodoo Hypothesis.

York’s Creative Writing program gifted me the real struggle of tunneling into the writer I often dreamed, but seldom believed, to be me. I’m claiming a writing life from my fractured, chaotic past having been gently pushed by my York CW mentor-professors off the stubborn sands of doubt into a world of immense possibility. I’ve worked as a non-profit administrator for the past 5 years and the deep and creative thinking I was able to cultivate in the intimate creative writing sessions continue to influence how I make decisions and the degree of empathy I bring to the work. I now teach in the English Department at Humber College and model my classes on the profound experiences I had in the Creative Writing program at York. I have found that the practice-based approaches I borrow from my York professors are most effective for students of various skill levels. I strive to do, for each of my students what my Creative Writing professors at York did for me: they set me on one of the most rewarding and inspiring journeys of my life.