Edmonton Public Library Writer in Residence
The Edmonton Public Library’s Writer in Residence (WIR) program provides services to aspiring and established writers in Edmonton. Services include individual manuscript consultations, public readings and talks, information on the publishing process and networking with the writing community. The WIR hosts monthly events at various EPL branches. These sessions bring together writers of all abilities to network, talk about their writing, listen to guest speakers, and provide support and encouragement to each other.
Kate A. Boorman is an award-winning author from Edmonton, with roots in the small town of Rimbey, Alberta. She writes speculative fiction and has a mild obsession with abandoned places, memory, and the darkest parts of the forest. Her books have been published in four world territories and have appeared on a variety of Best Of lists, from Cosmopolitan to O! The Oprah Magazine. The first book in her acclaimed, Winterkill trilogy won the Alberta Writers’ Guild Award for Children’s Fiction. What We Buried was a Bank Street College Best Books of 2019. Her newest thriller, Into the Sublime, released in July to starred trade reviews, and was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Her sixth novel releases fall 2023.
Contact the WIR:
Kate is accepting booking requests to meet with her at the Stanley A. Milner Library in her Writer in Residence office or online.
To book a one-on-one session with Kate, please complete this form.
Edmonton Public Library Featured Writer
Katherine Abbass (she/her) is a multi-genre author and educator of Lebanese descent. Born in Montréal and raised in Beaumont, Alberta, she has been writing and teaching in various capacities for nearly a decade.
Katherine spent her undergraduate years as a writing tutor at the University of Alberta’s Centre for Writers, where she worked primarily with international students and English-language learners. After graduating with a Bachelor of Secondary Education in English and Drama, she began teaching English and ESL at École Maurice Lavallée. As a high school educator, Katherine worked for a handful of school boards across the province before moving back to Montréal to pursue her MA in English Literature and Creative Writing at Concordia University. Now, she works online as a full-time writer for Reimagine AI, a Montréal-based creative studio.
Katherine’s fiction has been nominated for both an Alberta Literary Award (2022) and an Alberta Magazine Award (2016). In 2021, she won Riddle Fence magazine’s Fiction Contest, and she was shortlisted for Room magazine’s Creative Nonfiction Contest in 2020. Her writing has also appeared in literary magazines such as Funicular, yolk, The Antigonish Review, and untethered, among others.
Throughout the pandemic, Katherine served as Poetry Editor for Moon Jelly House, a publisher of chapbooks by diverse authors. She has also hosted writing workshops in conjunction with the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. Katherine publishes a monthly newsletter, Autobiography of Consciousness, and can be found on Instagram.
Be sure to check out her recommended reading list of her favourite longer works of fiction and creative non-fiction by female writers.
Edmonton Public Library Blog Features
The Writers’ Guild of Alberta (WGA) was formed in 1980 to provide a meeting ground and collective voice for all the writers of the province. Our members write in every genre and at every level of expertise. The WGA helps give Alberta writers a sense of unity and community, and is the largest provincial writers’ organization in Canada. We support and advocate for all writers and provide opportunities to grow and connect while enriching Alberta’s culture and economy.
Poetry is a source of energy, entertainment and joy shared by all societies. The Edmonton Poetry Festival celebrates poetry in all its forms. We get people from across the city involved as creators and audiences. Doesn’t matter what age you are, what culture you come from, or whether you fall for slam poetry or jump at reading the classics. We work with all sorts of partners to build Edmonton’s vibrant poetry scene: publishers, writers’ organizations, community organizations, schools and literary groups. We connect poetry with other art forms (like music and visual art) and other parts of life (like science, politics, spirit). We aim to stimulate the growth and quality of work created and performed by Edmonton artists. We bring in national and international artists to inspire, entertain and educate. We build bridges with the human voice and the art of language.
LitFest is a celebration, a moveable feast of nonfiction. We don’t just sit around and read books (although we do that too). At LitFest, books about real life come off the page. Avid readers connect with writers through a series of live events, great conversations, and exciting gatherings for 11 days every October in Edmonton, AB.
Book Publishers Association of Alberta
The BPAA supports a thriving Alberta publishing industry through advocacy, professional and trade development, and other member programs.
Capital City Press Anthology 