The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) Writer-in-Residence program is aimed at supplementing existing Creative Writing courses by providing students with access to a working, professional writer for feedback and support. Additionally, the program is dedicated to engaging the broader community by developing partnerships with North York libraries, schools and community organizations to connect our Writer-in-Residence with off-campus populations.
On this page:
York University's Writer-in-Residence Program Presents:
Miriam Toews in conversation with Karen Solie
Join York's 2023 Writer-in-Residence Karen Solie for a conversation with internationally revered author Miriam Toews. Miriam will read from her work and then speak with Karen about "writing, reading, fighting and talking." The event will conclude with an audience Q&A and book signing, and is open to members of the York community and beyond.
Date: April 17, 2023
Venue: 2nd Floor, Second Student Centre
Reception: 7:00 – 7:30 pm
Lecture: 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Miriam Toews
Miriam Toews is the author of many bestselling novels: Fight Night, Women Talking, All My Puny Sorrows, Irma Voth, The Flying Troutmans, A Complicated Kindness, A Boy of Good Breeding, and Summer of My Amazing Luck, and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life. She is a winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers' Trust Engel Findley Award. Her work is read around the world and translated into many languages. She lives in Toronto.
Karen Solie
Karen Solie is the author of five collections of poetry. Her third, Pigeon (Anansi, 2009), won the Griffin Poetry Prize, Trillium Poetry Prize, and the Pat Lowther Award. A volume of selected and new poems, The Living Option, was published in the UK in 2013, and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out (Anansi, FSG, 2015) was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award, and her most recent collection, The Caiplie Caves (Anansi, FSG, Picador, 2019), was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and Derek Walcott Prize. Her work has been translated into seven languages and has appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada, the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Australia, including in the sixth edition of the Norton Anthology of Poetry. Karen has taught writing for universities and writing programs across Canada and in the UK, and was the 2022 Holloway Visiting Poet and Lecturer for the University of California at Berkeley. She is currently on the creative writing faculty with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
How the Program Works
Each year Writers-in-Residence will be selected for each semester from interested professional writers (minimum two published books) who submit through a Call for Applications in the previous spring.
Writers will be compensated competitively at $25,000 per four-month term. Their hours will be divided equally between service to the York community and working on their own book-length creative projects.
The writer-in-residence will be afforded an office on campus to meet with students to discuss their creative writing, offer editorial feedback, and potentially make suggestions toward publication. They will also host four public-facing events per term of their own design, which might include readings, workshops, panel discussion, seminars, classroom visits, field trips, or any other activity that will showcase their expertise and knowledge as a working writer in Canada.
Meet our Inaugural Writer-in-Residence
Karen Solie
In January 2023, LA&PS will welcome award-winning Canadian poet, Karen Solie. Karen is the author of five collections of poetry. Her third, Pigeon (Anansi, 2009), won the Griffin Poetry Prize, Trillium Poetry Prize, and the Pat Lowther Award. A volume of selected and new poems, The Living Option, was published in the UK in 2013, and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out (Anansi, FSG, 2015) was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award, and her most recent collection, The Caiplie Caves (Anansi, FSG, Picador, 2019), was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and Derek Walcott Prize.
Her work has been translated into seven languages and has appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada, the US, the UK, Europe and Australia, including in the sixth edition of the Norton Anthology of Poetry. She has taught writing at universities and writing programs across Canada and the UK. She was the 2022 Holloway Visiting Poet and Lecturer for the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently a member of the creative writing Faculty at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
Between January 7 and April 30, 2023, Karen will be conducting manuscript consultations and events. She is also available for selected classroom visits.
Resources
Consultations
- Four meetings per week will be held by appointment only
- Appointments can be made here through Calendly at least two weeks prior to each meeting
- Submission: Three poems or twelve pages of prose; .doc or .docx files only
- Office location: 628 Atkinson Building
Events
- Introductory solo reading (end of January)
- Two workshops in February (one before and one after reading)
- Early/mid-March panel/gala event
Questions?
Feel free to contact Pasha Malla at pmalla@yorku.ca, Associate Professor, Creative Writing with any questions about the LA&PS Writer-in-Residence program.