Introducing our 2024-25 Writer in Residence, Garry Thomas Morse!
Garry Thomas Morse is a poet and novelist who grew up on the West Coast and has pitched his woo at the Canadian prairie for over a decade, writing up an electrical storm during his time in Regina, Winnipeg, and more recently, Saskatoon.
Over a period of 11 years, his experience working for a number of Canadian publishers has given him the honour of cultivating and curating the work of many emergent writers in our country.
Garry has published several collections of poetry, notably Discovery Passages, which is about the history of his Kwakwaka’wakw Indigenous ancestors and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. Prairie Harbour, a poetic epic set in Regina, was also shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award. His long poem, Scofflaw, was shortlisted for the 2022 Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award.
Garry is also the author of a speculative fiction series called The Chaos! Quincunx, and two of its three books have been nominated for the ReLit Award. He is also the author of two well-storied novels, Death in Vancouver and Yams Do Not Exist (featuring an afterlife sequence set in Saskatoon). His most recent work is a metafictional novel, Tulpa Mea Culpa.
Garry has served as the 2018 Jack McClelland Writer in Residence at the University of Toronto and the 2019 Carol Shields Writer in Residence at the University of Winnipeg.
As Writer in Residence for the SPL, Garry is excited to share some of his literary techniques and perspectives with local writers looking to experiment with or tweak their own approach. He will offer thematic, multi-part workshops that explore aspects of fiction and poetry.
During his residency, Garry plans to work on a novel and a collection of poetry, with each set in Saskatoon.
