About the Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer in Residence
Every year, the Department of English and Cultural Studies collaborates with the McMaster Library and the Hamilton Public Library to host a writer as the Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer in Residence, usually for eight months. The residency invites a well-published Canadian author to work at the Hamilton Public Library and on the McMaster Main Campus to mentor creative writers from the University and from the Hamilton community.
The Writer in Residence works closely with individual writers, providing feedback on submissions in one-on-one meetings and helping with creativity and revision. Writers in Residence also contribute to public outreach by making class visits to university, college, high school and community classes, and participating in workshops. Resident writers give public readings from their work and help the Department of English and Cultural Studies maintain lively contact with the Hamilton writing community.
Meet Anna Chatterton
Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer in Residence 2024-25
Anna Chatterton is a playwright, librettist and performer based in Hamilton and best known for riveting female-focused works. Chatterton is the incoming Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer in Residence at McMaster University for the 2024-25 year. She is a two-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. Her published writing includes the plays Within the Glass, Quiver, Cowgirl Up, Gertrude and Alice and upcoming Children of Fire (non-fiction). Anna’s work has been produced across Canada and the United States. Anna is the winner of a City of Hamilton Arts Award, a Toronto Theatre Critics Award, an LA Independent Women Film Award for ‘Best Narrative Feature’, has been nominated for a Juno Award, a Hamilton Literary Award for Fiction, and five Dora Mavor Moore Awards, winning one. Anna has been in residence at seven theatres.
Meet Jaclyn Desforges
Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer in Residence 2023-24
Jaclyn Desforges is the queer and neurodivergent author of Danger Flower (Palimpsest Press/Anstruther Books), winner of the 2022 Hamilton Literary Award for Poetry and one of CBC’s picks for the best Canadian poetry of 2021. She’s also the author of Why Are You So Quiet? (Annick Press, 2020), which was shortlisted for a Chocolate Lily Award and selected for the 2023 TD Summer Reading Club. Jaclyn is a Pushcart-nominated writer and the winner of a 2022 City of Hamilton Creator Award, a 2020 Hamilton Emerging Artist Award for Writing, two 2019 Short Works Prizes, and the 2018 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award. Jaclyn’s writing has been featured in literary magazines across Canada. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia’s School of Creative Writing and lives in Hamilton with her partner and daughter.
Expandable List
The Department of English and Cultural Studies previously hosted a four-month Writer in Residence Program from 1999-2002. In 2003, it was renamed the Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer in Residence, jointly funded by the Taylor family, the Department of English and Cultural Studies with the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster, and the Canada Council for the Arts. The residency was further expanded in 2013 to become an eight-month residency with the participation of the Hamilton Public Library and again in 2019 with the participation of the McMaster Library.
Through this program, we have been able to offer residencies to highly acclaimed writers of a variety of genres who hail from places across the country. They include Daniel David Moses, Sandra Birdsell, M.T. Kelly, Ven Begamudré, Shyam Selvadurai, M. NourbeSe Philip, Catherine Bush, John Terpstra, Daphne Marlatt, Lawrence Hill, André Alexis, Kim Echlin and Pasha Malla.
The eight-month residencies are co-sponsored through a partnership between the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster, with the help of a generous donation from the Taylor family, the Hamilton Public Library and the McMaster University Library.
The residency enables writers and aspiring writers in the Hamilton region to consult with the resident during office hours held at the Hamilton Public Library and at McMaster University for the equivalent of two days a week. Depending on the resident’s circumstances, these days can be conceived in different ways. While Writers in Residence usually make classroom visits, they are not asked to teach classes.
These arrangements provide us, the hosting institutions, with the pleasure of contributing to Canadian writers’ financial security so they can have time to write (on the days of the week beyond the two contracted by the residency), while community members have the opportunity to consult about new work with an established writer. Over the years, we’ve been pleased to see that our Writers in Residence have consulted as much or more with people from the general writing community in Hamilton as they have with writers from within McMaster itself.
Applications are closed for the 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26 Writers in Residence positions. The next call for applications will take place in Fall 2025.
To inquire about the program, please contact the Department of English and Cultural Studies at 905-525-9140, ext. 24491 or engdept@mcmaster.ca.