Situated in both the Department of English and the Département des littératures de langue française, de traduction et de création (DLTC) within the Faculty of Arts, the Mordecai Richler Writer-in-Residence Program is designed to host one accomplished writer per academic year. Writers selected for the prestigious writer-in-residence position are expected to give public lectures and readings, meet with and help to develop students’ writing; organize workshops, and generally participate in the creative and intellectual life of the departments and the Faculty.
This year’s Mordecai Richler Writer-in-Residence is internationally acclaimed novelist, playwright, performer, and broadcast host, Ann-Marie MacDonald. She is the author of the bestselling novels Fayne, Fall on Your Knees, The Way the Crow Flies, and Adult Onset.
MacDonald’s writing for the stage includes the award-winning play Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), as well as The Arab’s Mouth, Belle Moral: A Natural History, and Hamlet-911. She also authored the libretto for the chamber opera Nigredo Hotel, and book and lyrics for the musical Anything That Moves.
“Mapping Ann-Marie MacDonald” with Richler Writer-in-Residence Ann-Marie MacDonald and Dr. Neta Gordon (Brock University)
Wednesday, December 4, 5-7 PM
Redpath Museum Auditorium, 859 Sherbrooke West
Join the Department of English for an evening of literature, literary criticism, and digital humanities with our 2024-2025 Richler Writer-in-Residence, the renowned playwright, director and novelist Ann-Marie MacDonald and esteemed Canadian literature Professor Neta Gordon (Brock University).
In discussion with Ann-Marie MacDonald and Professor Erin Hurley, Professor Gordon will describe her student-centred, interdisciplinary project, "Mapping Ann-Marie MacDonald," and its frameworks of data feminism and consensus-driven literary analysis. It also explores the unique situation for faculty and students working on the project to be collaborating with the creative artist.
Neta Gordon is a Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Brock University, and the author of Catching the Torch: Contemporary Canadian Literary Responses to World War I (Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2016) and Bearers of Risk: Writing Masculinity in Contemporary English-Canadian Short Story Cycles (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022). Most recently, Professor Gordon has turned to research on Ann-Marie MacDonald, focusing on the author’s decades-long invitational approach to making space for marginalized voices.
Historical Fiction with Richler Writers-in-Residence Ann-Marie MacDonald & Heather O’Neill
Hosted by Ara Osterweil & Alexander Manshel
Wednesday, October 30, 5-8 pm
Faculty Club Ballroom, 3450 rue McTavish
Come join the Department of English for an evening devoted to historical fiction in literature. 2024 Richler Writers-in-Residence Ann-Marie MacDonald and Heather O’Neill will read from their recent novels, followed by a discussion about historical fiction with Professors Alexander Manshel and Ara Osterweil.
Heather O’Neill is the author of six books, including Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Lonely Hearts Hotel, and When We Lost Our Heads. She has been awarded the Canada Reads Prize, the Danuta Gleed Award, The Writer's Trust Fellowship, and the Hugh Mclennan Prize for Fiction. Her fiction has been nominated for the Giller Prize twice and the Women's Prize for Fiction three times. She is also an award-winning essayist who has written for The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, The Globe and Mail, and The Walrus.
Wine and snacks will be served.
Please come dressed in costume as your favorite literary or historical character.
THE EVENT IS FULL!
If you would like to be added to the mailing list, please email ara.osterweil [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Historical%20Fiction%20Waiting%20List) (Ara Osterweil).