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Emma Healey (Canadian writer)

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Emma Healey
Healey at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival
Born (1991-01-10) January 10, 1991 (age 33)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Alma materConcordia University
Website
www.emmahealey.com

Emma Healey (born January 10, 1991) is a Canadian writer and poet from Toronto, Ontario.

Early life and education

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Healey was born in Toronto, Ontario, on January 10, 1991, to actor and playwright parents.[1] She was named after Jane Austen's character, Emma, and writer Flannery O'Connor.[1] Healey has stereoblindness, having been born blind in one eye.[2] She studied creative writing at Concordia University, spending a year on exchange at University College Cork.[1] While at Concordia she was twice awarded the Irving Layton Award for Creative Writing.[3]

Writing

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Begin With the End in Mind, Healey's first collection of poetry, was published in 2012.[1] It was selected by poet and writer Stan Rogal in 2015 as the reason he viewed Healey as an up-and-comer to watch.[4] Her second collection of poetry, Stereoblind, was released by House of Anansi Press in 2018.[5] The collection deals in part with learning that the name of her visual condition had a name.[6] The front cover art was designed by her then roommate, artist Layne Hinton.[3] Healey's book Best Young Woman Job Book was released by Random House in 2022.[7] The memoir tracks Healey's career through a series of odd jobs that haven't aligned with her initial idea of what it would mean to be a writer.[8] Canadian author and commentator, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, said of her writing in the book as having "flare and style and an incredibly infuriating amount of skill".[9]

Healey was the poetry critic for The Globe and Mail from 2014 to 2016.[10] She has also been a regular contributor to the music blog Said the Gramophone. In April 2018, Healey was Open Book's writer in residence.[3]

In a 2014 The Hairpin article Healey wrote about her experience dating an anonymous faculty member, which began as consensual but was ultimately defined by an imbalance of power.[11] Initially ignored by Concordia, attention was drawn to the article in 2018 after former Concordia student, Mike Spry, wrote about the toxicity of the writing program.[12] Author Heather O'Neill subsequently came forward as a groping victim while a student at the school, two decades earlier.[13] In 2018, Healey filed a formal complaint against a male professor. In October 2019 it was reported that the professor was no longer working at the school.[14]

Works

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  • Begin With the End in Mind (2012)
  • Stereoblind (2018)
  • Best Young Woman Job Book: A Memoir (2022)
  • Power (2019)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Gaul, Ashleigh (2012). "The Work of Emma Healey". Broken Pencil.
  2. ^ Murphy, Devon (16 April 2018). "Emma Healey Sees the World Beneath the World". www.banffcentre.ca. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  3. ^ a b c ""I Like to Be Surrounded by Objects with a Past": Meet Our Poetry Month Writer-in-Residence, Emma Healey!". open-book.ca. 28 March 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  4. ^ "Poetry Primer #9: Stan Rogal & Emma Healey". alllitup.ca. 16 April 2015.
  5. ^ Dolman, AJ. "Everything Is Something Else and Back Again: Stereoblind Emma Healey : Arc Poetry". arcpoetry.ca. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  6. ^ Lubrin, Canisia (12 April 2018). "Emma Healey's diagnosis of a visual deficiency lent her a new perspective on life and poetry". Quill and Quire. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  7. ^ Hood, Andrew. "REVIEW: BEST YOUNG WOMAN JOB BOOK". bookshelf.ca. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  8. ^ "Memoirs, Mysteries, Romance & Great Fiction: 15 Books To Devour This Spring". Shedoesthecity. 28 March 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  9. ^ Arterian, Diana (17 May 2022). "The Annotated Nightstand: What Elamin Abdelmahmoud is Reading Now and Next". Literary Hub. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  10. ^ "Emma Healey". writersfestival.org. Ottawa International Writers Festival.
  11. ^ Fowles, Stacey May (17 October 2014). "The danger of being a woman in the Canadian literary world". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  12. ^ Woods, Allan (12 January 2018). "'The interest is in sex, not writing,' says one Concordia creative writing grad". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  13. ^ Kovac, Adam (12 January 2018). "Two Concordia teachers removed from classes amid sexual misconduct investigation". Montreal. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  14. ^ Rukavina, Steve (16 October 2019). "Investigation into harassment allegations against Concordia creative writing prof over". CBC News. Retrieved 25 May 2022.