ABOUT

About the name of this blog

I love the metaphysical poets, as well as complex extended metaphors --- though, truthfully, I can rarely get away with them in my prose.  Plus, it seems to me that there is something both conceited and metaphysical when it comes to blogging!

About the content of this blog

I write a lot about writing.  (Although I probably write about not writing, or the attendant miseries and joys of writing as much as about the craft of writing itself.)  I also write about other things because those are the kinds of things I like to read on other people’s blogs – about the fabric of people’s lives.  Blogging is like journaling for me, so you will find me writing about, well, whatever I happen to be thinking about (e.g. my vacation…or reorganizing my closet).  I can’t promise it will always (or even often) be of general interest.  But if you use the navigation buttons below the header, you’ll find posts tagged for News and Writing.

Thanks for reading!  And I’m always happy to read and respond to your comments.  

About me

Born and raised in Ottawa, I attended Carleton University and the University of Manitoba.  I now live in Montreal with my husband, stepdaughter, and baby daughter.

Giving a reading from an unpublished story is always nerve-wracking.

About my writing

I have always wanted to be a writer, and I published my first short stories in literary journals in 2005.  My short-story collection Mother Superior was published by Freehand Books in 2008, the same year that I won the Journey Prize --- which is still pretty much the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

My debut novel Bone and Bread was released by House of Anansi in Spring 2013. It has been widely reviewed (see here, here, and here), and it won the Quebec Writers' Federation Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction...which means that the world's least athletic person finally has a trophy.

My latest novel, Songs for the End of the World, was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2020, the same year I finally got my own domain, over at www.saleemanawaz.com

Besides fiction, I also write a regular column for the Montreal Gazette. 

My laptop holds drafts of all kinds: a musical-in-progress, pilot scripts, film treatments, detective fiction, children's books, and young adult fiction.. in various states of completion. Literary fiction is my primary focus, but I love creating characters and narratives of all kinds.


Contact

The best way to get in touch with me is to drop me a line on Twitter.