Melanie Little
In residence at Historic Joy Kogawa House in June and July 2022
Melanie Little is an award-winning author and editor of fiction and non-fiction. Her debut collection of stories, Confidence, was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award and selected as a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book. Her historical novel-in-verse for young adults, The Apprentice’s Masterpiece, was a Canadian Library Association Honour Book, a gold medalist at the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and a White Raven selection for the International Youth Library in Munich. She is currently finishing a novel that draws on her experiences as an editor, and is writing her second collection of short stories.
Melanie has taught creative writing at Dalhousie University, the University of Alberta, and at workshops across Canada, and has been a writing mentor with Diaspora Dialogues and the Ontario Arts Council. As the inaugural editor of Calgary’s Freehand Books, she won the Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence from the Book Publishers Association of Alberta; subsequently, she served as Senior Editor of Canadian Fiction for House of Anansi Press. Books she has edited have won the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Fiction, and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and have twice been finalists for Canada Reads.
She and her husband, fellow writer and editor Peter Norman, have shared their trove of reference books in homes from Vancouver to Ottawa, Calgary, Halifax, and Edmonton, and are currently residents of the Lakeshore Village Artists’ Co-op in Etobicoke, Ontario.
Latest Blog Postings by Melanie Little
A Professional Editor Pauses to Write: Self-Editing with Enjoyment Not Judgment
Guest Post by Melanie Little When I told friends, family, and colleagues about my upcoming two-month (yes!) residency at Historic Joy Kogawa House, the same question (after the hearty-though-envious congratulations) arose again and again. Are you going to be able,...
Towards Your Best Version
Towards Your Best Version: Editing Workshop at Kogawa House.
Please join us to hear writer-in-residence and award-winning editor Melanie Little in conversation with Robyn So, editor of the recent national bestseller and Canada Reads finalist Scarborough.
Writing Historical Fiction
Join us for our upcoming Writing Historical Fiction workshop with writers-in-residence Melanie Little and Peter Norman to learn how to balance creativity and responsibility.