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Candas Jane Dorsey
Candas Jane Dorsey was born in Edmonton and continues to live and write in that city. She is a writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction, with two novels, three books of short fiction (one a hybrid book/CD), four books of poetry and numerous publications in anthologies and journals. She has edited or co-edited four anthologies of Canadian speculative fiction, and is known for her extensive contribution to the encouragement, strengthening and promulgation of speculative writing in Canada.
Since 1979 she has also worked as a freelance writer of everything from magazine articles to technical reports, and as a freelance editor of everything from computer help files to novels. She has written for television and film. She is the founding partner of Wooden Door and Associates, a professional communications company since 1991. In 1983, with Reg Silvester, she co-founded the Edmonton Bullet arts newspaper, and worked on it for ten years. She has given workshops and presentations for both children and adults. Candas has also taught in the Professional Writing (PROW) at Grant MacEwan College. She has taught creative writing at the University of Alberta; at Metro Continuing Education; at Clarion West and the University of Cleveland (among others). She has been Writer-in-Residence for the Edmonton, St. Albert. Sherwood Park, and Fort Saskatchewan public libraries, at the Leighton Colony of the Banff Centre and in Whistler, BC.
Candas is a founding member of The Books Collective, a professional independent trade publisher 1992-2006. She was publisher of Tesseract Books, an imprint of The Books Collective 1994-2003. From 1992 to 2006 she was also one publisher and editor of River Books, another imprint of The Books Collective.
Candas has been active in the writing community having memberships in THe Writers’ Union of Canada, Periodical Writers’ Association of Canada, Editors’ Association of Canada, Writers Guild of Alberta, SF Canada, Writers Guild of Canada, PEN International. She was the founding president of SF Canada and was President of the Writers Guild of Alberta. She has a B.A. in English and Drama from the University of Alberta, a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Calgary at Edmonton, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
Awards
Crawford Fantasy Award, IAFA, 1997
Woman of Distinction Award in Arts and Culture, YWCA, 1998
James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award, 1998
Prix Aurora Award, 1998
George Bugnet Award, Alberta Book Awards, 1998, short-listed
Howard O’Hagan Award, Alberta Book Awards, 2001
Spectrum Award, 2002, short-listed
Sunburst Award, 2002, short-listed
Alberta Centennial Medal, Province of Alberta, 2005
