Debra Anderson is the recipient of the prestigious third annual Dayne Ogilvie Grant for an emerging gay Canadian author and appeared at the 2009 Word on the Street (Toronto). She was also the guest author at York University's Canadian Writers in Person Reading Series (2009) and read at the Proud Voices Reading Series (Toronto) in 2009. She taught a creative writing workshop at the 2007 Word on the Street (Toronto) and was the guest author in February 2007 at Pink Ink - a Toronto writing group for queer/trans youth. Her recent out of town reading highlights include performing at the tenth anniversary of the Thin Air 2006 — Winnipeg International Writers Festival, The Robson Reading Series (Vancouver), Festival Voix d'Ameriques (Montreal) and the Durtygurls Reading Series (Ottawa).

Debra promoted her first novel, Code White (McGilligan Books, 2005) on a cross-Canada tour including stops in Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, and Winnipeg.

Debra has also performed and given talks at Canadian universities and high schools. She has faciliated creative writing workshops for writing festivals and youth groups. She is a dynamic speaker on a wide variety of topics, among them: the creative writing process, the publishing process, feminist issues in texts, gender, the outsider, being a first-time novelist and finding your voice, creating characters who speak from a marginalized perspective, performing your work, and creating successful writing groups.

To book Debra Anderson for an event or interview, or to receive a press copy and promotional materials to review, click here for contact info

Debra is also the organizer and promoter of Get Your Lit Out, a reading series based in Toronto that promotes local female authors. She also organizes and promotes additional local literary events. To inquire about Debra organizing an event, Click for more information.

Writer's Trust of Canada
Dayne Ogilvie Grant Winner (2009) - Jury Citation & Press Release
Writers' Trust of Canada

Capital Xtra! (Summer 2009)
Interview
Capital Xtra!
"Code White is a very sexy book..."— Capital Xtra!

Herizons (Winter, 2007)
Review
"The work of a writer who takes her issues as seriously as she takes her fun. Code White is a book that meets your eye, has a good handshake, and looks killer in a pair of fishnets." — Herizons

Shameless Magazine (Summer 2006)
Review
"Code White provides a unique story rife with butches and femmes, kindly and cruel nurses, and love and friendships lost and found." — Shameless Magazine

Swerve Magazine (Winnipeg, June 2006 Issue)
Review and Interview Feature
"In Code White, Anderson delivers a lot of humour and hope." — Swerve Magazine

Broken Pencil - Issue 31
Review
"A passionate and realistic no-nonsense portrait of femme culture in the unstable world of modern mental health, Code White is the kind of book that those 'chick lit' books have nightmares about." — Broken Pencil

ffwd — (Calgary) March 16, 2006
Interview
"Machinations of a psych ward — Debra Anderson's novel Code White an intimate look at mental illness." — ffwd
ffwd

Calgary Herald — March 11, 2006
Review
"Two Tales of Down-and-out Young Women." — Calgary Herald

TRADE: Queer Things (Winter 2006 Issue, Toronto)
Cover; Feature Interview
"Debra Anderson Fans the Flames of Fame" — Trade: Queer Things

The Hour (Montreal, February 9, 2006)
Review
"Worlds Apart — Two Valentine's Releases Resurrect Feminist Critiques of Future World Orders." — The Hour
The Hour

"Anderson evokes the tension and tedium of trying to maintain impossible but gorgeous desires while regaining the strength and grounding to realize them. As much a novel of trauma and recovery as a critique of the conditions we create for those in recovery, Code White poses important questions about the ongoing pathologization of queerness in psychiatric practice and about how we know what wellness, integrity and sanity are in the first place." — The Hour (Montreal)

Ottawa Xpress (Volume 13, Issue 6)
"Save Your Cash For the Brash." — Ottawa Express
Highlighting Durtygurls Reading Series

NOW Magazine (Toronto, November 2005)
Review

TRADE: Queer Things (Toronto, Summer 2004 Issue)
"Why Can't I Be You? — Trade: Queer Things
Interview

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Debra Anderson is the recipient of the prestigious third annual Dayne Ogilvie Grant for an emerging gay Canadian author and a graduate of the York University Creative Writing Program. She has been a regular on the Toronto reading scene for the last decade, and has performed across Canada, most recently appearing at the 2009 Word on the Street (Toronto), as a guest author at York University's Canadian Writers in Person Reading Series (2009) and reading at the Proud Voices Reading Series at Pride Toronto 2009. Debra's writing has been anthologized in numerous publications. Debra currently resides in Toronto, where she was born and raised. Code White (McGilligan Books, 2005) is her first novel.