The writer-in-residence for the fall 2012 semester is poet, novelist and essayist Anne Simpson.

She is the author of two novels, Canterbury Beach (2001) and Falling (2008); three books of poetry, Light Falls Through You (2000), Loop (2003) and Quick (2007); and a collection of essays, The Marram Grass: Notes on Poetry and Otherness (2009).

Her poetry has been awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize, while her short fiction has received the Journey Prize and her second novel, Falling, was awarded the Dartmouth Award for Fiction and was longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award.

A former CUSO teacher in Nigeria, Ms. Simpson has taught in the Department of English and the Department of Fine Art at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., where she lives. She has been writer-in-residence at several universities and libraries, among them the Saskatoon Public Library.

Ms. Simpson has also been a faculty member at the Banff Centre and says as writer-in-residence she usually “works at getting to know a particular community in the brief time I’m there, and then I usually throw myself in at the deep end.”

She is looking forward to her residency in St. John’s and although she already has several ideas for her time in Newfoundland, she intends to first “find out what might interest people, since there’s such a lively writing community already.”

Ms. Simpson will be available for consultation with members of both the university community and the general public, beginning in early September. She can be contacted by phone at 864-6942.

Her residency is funded by Memorial University's dean of arts and by the Canada Council for the Arts.