Staff Report
BRANT NEWS

Alissa York, an author who has explored topics as diverse as homelessness, polygamy and the connection between humans and animals, will be visiting Laurier Brantford on Feb. 27 and March 7 to meet with students and discuss her work.

The university’s 2013 author-in-residence is touring Laurier’s campuses to connect with young writers and involve the general public in a conversation about the arts.

“I look forward with great anticipation to meeting with the students and faculty of Wilfrid Laurier University, as well as members of the wider community, for a series of inspiring, illuminating discussions,” York said.

“I see this residency as an opportunity to engage with developing writers and other lovers of the written word, while fostering meaningful connections between artistic, academic and public spheres.”

York’s novel Effigy, which centres on a polygamist family in rural Utah, was short-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her national best-seller Fauna was short-listed for the 2011 Toronto Book Award.

The widely traveled author, who now teaches at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, has had articles and essays published in Quill & Quire, The Guardian and various literary collections.

On March 7, York will deliver a joint lecture at Laurier Brantford with Andrew Westoll at 7 p.m.

“We are excited at Laurier to be hosting one of Canada’s emerging writing talents as our writer-in-residence in 2013,” said Laurier provost Deborah MacLatchy.

“Her most recent novel, Fauna, resonates on so many different levels, including our need as a species for ‘wild spaces’ and human-animal connections in our increasingly urban lives. We look forward as a community to discussing these themes in fiction writing with Alissa.”