Debra Anderson is the recipient of the Writers' Trust of Canada's prestigious third annual Dayne Ogilvie Grant for an emerging gay Canadian author (2009) and recently appeared at the Brockton Writers Series (2011), the Trigger Festival (2010) and Word on the Street (Toronto, 2009). 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, 2009) at Pride Toronto. She taught a creative writing workshop at Word on the Street (Toronto, 2007) and was the guest author in 2007 at Pink Ink - a Toronto writing group for queer/trans youth run by Supporting Our Youth (SOY).

Her recent out of town reading highlights include performing at the tenth anniversary of the Thin Air — Winnipeg International Writers Festival (2006), The Robson Reading Series (Vancouver, 2006), Festival Voix d'Ameriques (Montreal, 2006) and the Durtygurls Reading Series (Ottawa, 2006).

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

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 and sexuality, the outsider, 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 promotional materials to review, please email.

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, please email.

PRAISE FOR CODE WHITE

Writers' Trust of Canada
Dayne Ogilvie Grant Winner (2009)

"Debra Anderson is a courageous writer, unafraid to explore and expose the deeper chasms in life. Combined with enviable craft, a big heart, a sense of humour and mischief, and that larger vision that makes a great writer, she holds her reader with a firm, delightful grip."—Dayne Ogilvie Grant Jury

For more info & prize history on the Dayne Ogilvie Grant, please visit the Writers' Trust of Canada

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

York University Alumni News
Profile (May 2009)
"Alumna Debra Anderson Decodes Mental Health in Debut Novel"
"Written in the form of journal entries, Code White explores the experience of Alex, a woman who is locked inside a mental institution. Reading her journal gives you get an unfiltered view of Alex’s thoughts and feelings, which are often sharply humorous..."— Chris Cornish

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

Calgary Herald (March 11, 2006 - Calgary)
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 (February 9, 2006 - Montreal)
Review
"Worlds Apart — Two Valentine's Releases Resurrect Feminist Critiques of Future World Orders." —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

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

NOW Magazine (November 2005 - Toronto)
Review

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

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PRESS BIO

Debra Anderson is the recipient of the Writers' Trust of Canada's prestigious third annual Dayne Ogilvie Grant for an emerging gay Canadian author (2009) and is a graduate of the York University Creative Writing Program. She has been a regular on the Toronto reading scene, and has performed across Canada, most recently appearing at the Brockton Writers Series (Toronto, 2011), the Trigger Festival (Toronto, 2010), Word on the Street (Toronto, 2009), 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.