Elisabeth de mariaffi biography sampler
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I was thirty-three years old—a little older than the average—had two small children at home, and had been writing and publishing poetry in magazines for about ten years, off-and-on. I'm back at work now as a writer again, tiptoeing into a new novel.
That's the exciting thing about those focused years. Born and raised in Toronto, de Mariaffi now makes her home in St.
John’s, Newfoundland.She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and has taught fiction and screenwriting at UBC, Memorial University, and through the Humber School for Writers.
When I came into the Guelph MFA in 2007, mine was only the second cohort to begin the program.
From that moment on, nothing is ever the same again. I walked out of the program with a new society of friends and colleagues, many of whom are my all-time favourite people to this day. Her newest novel, The Retreat, about a dancer who must separate truth from lies in order to survive a deadly storm at a remote mountain arts retreat, is due out in July 2021 with Harper Collins Canada and Mulholland Books in the USA.
De Mariaffi’s poetry and short fiction have been widely published and praised in Canada, and have been shortlisted for the National Magazine Award.
Part of the beauty of a two-year program is how it forces you to expand outside of what you know. But despite the shiny veneer of this new life, Heike cannot shake the feeling that something is terribly wrong. It's a mess.
I wish I could tell you about it, but it's a mess. I know this now, because my first novel, a literary thriller called The Devil You Know, has just been released.
While I initially signed up to take a creative non-fiction course in my second semester, on the strong recommendation of a new friend (and on a bit of a whim, let's face it) I switched over to Michael Winter's short fiction workshop at the last minute. On the sunniest day of the year, she’s relaxing by a pond with Daniel when a strange little girl appears out of nowhere—then eerily disappears below the surface of the water.
A novel is nothing like a short story: it's tangly and full of strings. Two years later I completed my thesis in poetry under the guidance of the estimable Dionne Brand. Elisabeth now makes her home in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where she lives with the poet George Murray, their combined four children and a border collie—making them CanLit’s answer to the Brady Brunch.
[featured: spring 2015]
Check out our news item on The Devil You Know, and connect to essays, reviews, and more...[linked here]
Interview: 19 Questions with Christopher Evans
Review: Emily M.
Keeler on How to Get Along With Women in the National Post
Hysteria
One of The Globe and Mail’s “Favourite Books of the Year”
The closer she gets to the truth, the faster it slips away.
In the spring of 1945, fifteen year-old Heike circles in the mountains high above Switzerland.
Pushed out the door by a worried mother, Heike and her little sister, Lena, have escaped Dresden only days ahead of the firebombs that will destroy that city, to cross a war-torn Germany on their own.