Jan. 21, 2020
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – Wilfrid Laurier University will introduce fiction writer Carrianne Leung as the university’s Edna Staebler Laurier Writer-in-Residence for the winter term during a talk by Leung titled “Writing Truth, Writing Lies: Between Fiction and Nonfiction.” The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Hawk’s Nest on the Waterloo campus.  

Leung is an award-winning author of two books of fiction and last year served as writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus. Her nationally bestselling novel-in-stories, That Time I Loved You, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award in 2019 and her first book, The Wondrous Woo, was a finalist for a Toronto Book Award in 2014.

“We are very happy to welcome Carrianne Leung to Laurier as the 2020 Edna Staebler Writer in Residence,” said Tanis MacDonald, associate professor in the Department of English and Film Studies and chair of the Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence committee. “Carrianne’s experience in writing fiction for adult and youth audiences will appeal to writers of all ages, at all stages.”

As writer in residence on both Laurier’s Waterloo and Brantford campuses, Leung will visit classes, present guest lectures and offer one-on-one meetings with writers in the Laurier community. She will also be working on two new projects: a novel about female superheroes set in contemporary Toronto and a series of personal essays about her experience as a creative professional.

Doors open at 7 p.m. for the Jan. 23 event. Leung’s talk will begin at 7:30 p.m. The Hawk’s Nest is located in the Turret on the third floor of the Fred Nichols Campus Centre. To book an appointment with Leung, contact her at cleung@wlu.ca.

The Edna Staebler Laurier Writer-in-Residence was established in 2012 through a bequest from the late Edna Staebler, a prolific creative non-fiction writer and author of the popular “Schmecks” books, which celebrate the culture of Waterloo Region. Previous Laurier writers-in-residence include poet and novelist Gary Barwin (2019), creative non-fiction writer Emily Urquhart (2018), novelist Ashley Little (2017), playwright Drew Hayden Taylor (2016), poet Sonnet L’Abbé (2015), playwright Colleen Murphy (2014) and creative non-fiction writer Andrew Westoll (2013).