Author Elizabeth Hay Named Laurier's 2014 Visiting Writer

Home , Alissa York, Elizabeth Hay (novelist), Giller Prize

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JAN. 23, 2014 | 007-14

Author Elizabeth Hay named Laurier’s 2014 Visiting Writer

WATERLOO – Award-winning Canadian author Elizabeth Hay will be visiting Wilfrid Laurier University’s Waterloo and Brantford campuses March 17-21 as the university’s Visiting Writer for 2014.

Hay will discuss her latest novel, Alone in the Classroom, during a public lecture at Laurier’s Brantford campus, and a host of other topics during public lectures at Laurier’s Waterloo campus. In addition to lectures, Hay will visit classes, host a creative-writing workshop and join a panel discussion with the 2014 Edna Staebler Laurier Writer-in-Residence, Colleen Murphy.

A complete schedule of Hay’s public appearances will be available at wlu.ca/VisitingWriter closer to her visit.

“It is a great honour to host one of Canada’s literary masters as our 2014 Visiting Writer,” said Deborah MacLatchy, vice-president: academic and provost. “Her works speak to many of the research topics we seek to understand at Laurier such as the northern Canadian environment and the student-teacher relationship, and we are excited for our community to explore these and other themes with the author herself.”

As part of the Visiting Writer program, the Laurier community is invited to participate in the “Laurier Reads” reading group, which will read Hay’s Late Nights on Air. Late Nights on Air, a book set in and around a small radio station in Yellowknife in the Canadian north of the 1970s, won the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize, among other awards. The novel is a mix of intrigue, love story, wilderness adventure, history and environmental politics.

The Laurier Reads Elizabeth Hay group will meet three times during the winter term to discuss various aspects of Late Night on Air and will have a members-only meeting with Hay. For further information about Laurier Reads, visit wlu.ca/VisitingWriter. To register for Laurier Reads, contact Associate Professor Tanis MacDonald at [email protected] for the Waterloo campus, or Assistant Professor Tarah Brookfield at [email protected] for the Brantford campus.

Hay won Laurier’s 1993 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, for The Only Snow in Havana. She has been on shortlists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award, and in 2002 the Writers’ Trust of Canada presented her with the Marian Engel Award for her body of work, which includes novels, short stories and creative non-fiction.

Laurier’s Visiting Writer program is sponsored by Laurier’s Office of the Vice-President: Academic and Provost. Past writers have included Alissa York, Joseph Boyden and Lawrence Hill.

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