Deborah Willis is a Canadian writer.

Biography

Daughter of Pauline and Gary Willis, she was born in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

in 1982 and lived there until leaving to study at the University of Victoria. Willis has worked as a technical writer and a bookseller at Munro's Books in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Writing

Willis' fiction has appeared in ''The Virginia Quarterly'', ''The Iowa Review'', ''

The Walrus ''The Walrus'' is an independent, nonprofit Canadian media organization. It is multi-platform and produces an eight-issue-per-year magazine and online editorial content that includes current affairs, fiction, poetry, and podcasts, a nation ...

'', and ''Zoetrope.'' Her first book, ''Vanishing and Other Stories'' (2009), published by

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

, was named one of '' The Globe and Mail's'' Best Books of 2009, and was nominated for the BC Book Prize and the

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the governor general of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

. It was published in the United States by

Harper Perennial Harper Perennial is a paperback imprint of the publishing house HarperCollins Publishers. Overview Harper Perennial has divisions located in New York, London, Toronto, and Sydney. The imprint is descended from the Perennial Library imprint foun ...

in 2010 and translated into Hebrew (

Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir is a book publishing company in Israel. History The company's oldest imprint, Dvir, was founded in Odessa in 1919 by Hayim Nahman Bialik.

Publishing) and Italian (''Svanire'', Del Vecchio Editore). Her second collection of short fiction, ''The Dark and Other Love Stories'' (2017), was published by

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited is a publishing imprint and originally a British publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half- Scot half- American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''Jame ...

, the literary imprint of Penguin Canada, and by

W.W. Norton and Company W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly '' The Norton ...

in the U.S. It was longlisted for the 2017

Scotiabank Giller Prize The Giller Prize (known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize from 2005-2023) is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried c ...

. Willis was a writer-in-residence at the

Joy Kogawa Joy Nozomi Kogawa (born June 6, 1935) is a Canadian poet and novelist of Japanese descent. Life Kogawa was born Joy Nozomi Nakayama on June 6, 1935, in Vancouver, British Columbia, to first-generation Japanese Canadians Lois Yao Nakayama a ...

House in Vancouver, at the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program at the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

for the 2012-2013 academic year, and at

MacEwan University Grant MacEwan University, commonly known as MacEwan University, is a public university located in Downtown Edmonton, Alberta. Originally established as a community college which was named in honor of Dr. Grant MacEwan, 9th Lieutenant Governor of ...

in Edmonton. In 2023, Willis published her novel ''Girlfriend on Mars.'' ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote in a review: "Every detail is sharply placed by Willis, who has a scorching sense of humor and a soft spot for humanity down here on Earth." The novel was longlisted for the 2023

Giller Prize The Giller Prize (known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize from 2005-2023) is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried co ...

."12 Canadian books make longlist for $100K Scotiabank Giller Prize"

CBC Books CBC Arts () is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that creates and curates written articles, short documentaries, non-fiction series and interactive projects that represent the excellence of Canada's diverse artistic communitie ...

, September 6, 2023.

References

External links

Deborah Willis Home Page
Retrieved 2011-11-27. {{DEFAULTSORT:Willis, Deborah (Canadian author) Canadian women short story writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Writers from Calgary University of Victoria alumni Jewish Canadian writers 21st-century Canadian short story writers 1982 births Living people 21st-century Canadian novelists Canadian women novelists Novelists from Alberta