Writer in Residence
Toronto Public Library (TPL)’s Writer in Residence program supports writers and encourages exchanges between the author and the community. The Writer in Residence creates and delivers online programs, evaluates submitted manuscripts, meets virtually with writers from the general public, and works on their own project(s).
Writers who have held residencies at the library include Gail Bowen, Chester Brown, Austin Clarke, Karen Connelly, Deborah Cooke, Farzana Doctor, Sarah Ellis, Rabindranath Maharaj, Elizabeth Ruth, Robert J. Sawyer, Karl Schroeder, Allan Stratton, Sugith Varughese, Tim Wynne-Jones, Alissa York, David S. Young and Kim Echlin.
Summer 2021 Writer in Residence - Canadian Fiction Writer
Kate Cayley, TPL’s Summer 2021 Writer in Residence, is a fiction writer, playwright, and poet. She has written a short story collection, How You Were Born, two collections of poetry, When This World Comes to an End and Other Houses, a young adult novel, The Hangman in the Mirror, and a number of plays, both traditional and experimental, which have been performed in Canada, the US and the UK. She has won the Trillium Book Award, the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction, an O. Henry Short Story Prize, and a Chalmers Fellowship, and been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the K. M. Hunter Award, the ReLit Award and the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award, and long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize and the CBC Prize in both poetry and fiction. Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry. She has been writer in residence at McMaster University, and a playwright in residence with Tarragon Theatre and Zuppa Theatre. She lives in Toronto with her wife and their three children. Her second short story collection, Householders, is forthcoming from Biblioasis.
Past Programs
- Making a Living and Making a Life: a short talk on writing and publishing
- Structure and Outline: where to start and how to go on
- How to Begin
- What You Say Reveals Who You Are: a workshop on dialogue
Submitting Your Manuscript
TPL’s Writer in Residence offers writers of Canadian literature the opportunity to submit manuscripts for review and feedback. The Writer in Residence meets virtually with writers who submit short stories, novel excerpts and poetry to offer feedback and answer questions.
Manuscript submissions are not currently being accepted.
Stay tuned for information about the next opportunity to submit your manuscript.
Apply to be Writer in Residence
Toronto Public Library's (TPL) Writer in Residence program supports writers and encourages exchanges between the author and the community.
Applications are not currently being accepted for the Writer in Residence program.
Stay tuned for the next opportunity to apply for TPL’s Writer in Residence program. Toronto Public Library typically hosts two residencies per year.