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Alumni Fund

The Alumni Fund enables the Department of English to cultivate the intellectual and social life of its community in ways that would otherwise not be possible. Among the things that the fund has recently made possible are the following:

(1) THE GILLER PRIZE EVENT

Since 2007, the Department has invited the winners of the Scotiabank Giller Prize to deliver a public lecture at Queen’s. This event is part of a capstone experience for fourth-year English majors and medials, who all receive free copies of the prize-winning book. The event also features a book-signing, a reception, and readings by an array of visiting speakers and writers.

This unique event was initially funded by the Queen’s University Faculty of Arts & Science. The support of Alumni can help it to continue.

In January 2009, Joseph Boyden read from his 2008 Giller-Prize-winning novel Through Black Spruce, and participated in a reading and round-table discussion of Indigenous writing in Canada with Anishnabe writer/editor/publisher Kateri Akiwenzie Damm, and Delaware poet/playwright Daniel David Moses. Mr Boyden contributed his honorarium from the Giller Prize event to an aboriginal student scholarship which he founded.

Our first invited author was Elizabeth Hay; she read from her novel Late Nights on Air, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2007. Her visit was accompanied by a reception to launch the Department’s Giller Prize Event; the guest speaker was Professor David Staines (University of Ottawa), who has been associated with the Prize since its inception in 1994. In subsequent years, Giller Prize winners Linden MacIntyre (The Bishop’s Man, 2009) and Johanna Skibsrud (The Sentimentalists, 2010) participated in this event.

(2) THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH WEBSITE

The creation and maintenance of this website was made possible by the Alumni Fund.

Writer in Residence Fund

Since 2006, the Department of English has hosted writers in residence. For one term in each academic year, distinguished Canadian writers visit the department to participate in a range of literary events and offer mentorship to students involved in creative writing. The Writer-in-Residence program is organized by Carolyn Smart, with the assistance of Pat Rae and Marta Straznicky, and was initially supported by a Canada Council grant.

The generosity of Alumni can help to maintain this program, which contributes so much to the experience of students. Its benefits are not limited to creative writers, although the practical insights into writing and publishing in Canada that they gain are very valuable. The entire department benefits from the literary events hosted by our writers in residence.

Past Writers In Residence

Stuart Ross (Fall Term 2010)
is a Cobourg-based writer, editor, and creative-writing instructor. He is the Fiction & Poetry Editor for This Magazine and Poetry Editor for Toronto’s Mansfield Press. For the past three decades, he has also run his own micropress and a series of small literary journals. He is the co-founder of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair and a founding member of the Meet the Presses Collective, dedicated to promoting small press books and magazines. Author of numerous volumes of poetry and fiction, Ross won a 2010 ReLit Award for his collection of short stories Buying Cigarettes for the Dog.

WRITERS IN RESIDENCE PAGE »