Alumni Authors
Check out Alumni Authors in the Library!
A section of The University of Winnipeg Library has been dedicated to Alumni Authors.
Fiction
David Annandale (Collegiate 85) published The Valedictorians in 2010 through Turnstone Press, as part of a series of an epic-action thriller series featuring rogue warrior Jen Blaylock.
Karen Bate (BA 76) launches new book Ice. It’s a murder-mystery set in the fictional city of Mayfair and featuring detective Emily Starr and her new partner Iain Webster.
David Bergen (BED 85, LLD 07) wrote Stranger A stirring tale that lays bare the bonds of motherhood, revealing just how far a mother will go to reclaim her stolen child. Shortlisted Manitoba Book Awards 2017. Winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year for Out of Mind at the 2022 Manitoba Book Awards.
L E Dereksen (BA 12) has published a new book Shards of Law (The Avanir Chronicles Book 1).
Angele Gougeon (BA 05) released Sticks and Stones, a gritty, gothic paranormal about a girl who has premonitions of the dead. Sandra Daron is determined to save her family, even if that means saving them from themselves. Sticks and Stones is Angele Gougeon's debut novel.
Patti Grayson (BA 79) Autumn, One Spring published in 2010 by Turnstone Press. It was nominated for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher & the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction at the 2011 Manitoba Book Awards.
Frances Greenslade (BA 86) is one of the "New Faces of Fiction" for Random House of Canada, and was in Winnipeg to launch her book Shelter.
Shirley Grosser (Coll 55, BA 58) is the proud author of the book: RESILIENCE: Women's Stories of WWII.
Miriam Kalb (BA 77, BED 81) was recently published under her pen name, K. C. Konrad. Her first book is entitled Lead me not onto temptation; I can find it myself: Grandma Goes Online.
Wendy Loewen (BA 93) is co-author of The Culture Question: How to Create a Workplace Where People Like to Work (ACHIEVE Publishing, 2019). She is a Training Development Specialist at ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership & Workplace Performance.
Catherine Macdonald (BAH 71) won the Manitoba Book Awards Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction Book 2016 : Put on the Armour of Light
Cheryl Parisien (BA 93) published her first novel The Unweaving, September 2024. Loosely based on Cheryl's own family history, this historical novel explores one Métis family's fight against colonialism. Cheryl is a Winnipeg-based Red River Métis writer.
Kevin Patterson (Associate Alumnus) first book, The Water In Between, was a New York Times Notable Book. Country of Cold, his debut short fiction collection, won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize in 2003, as well as the inaugural City of Victoria Butler Book Prize.
Alison Preston (Coll 67, BA 88) wrote Blue Vengeance (Signature Editions, 2014) as her seventh novel. Previous titles, also from Signature Editions, include: The Girl in the Wall (2011) (won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction), Sunny Dreams (2007), Cherry Bites (2004), The Geranium Girls (2002), and The Rain Barrel Baby (2000). A Blue and Golden Year (Turnstone Press, 1997) was Alison's first novel. Visit her website at: www.alisonpreston.com
Corey Paul Redekop (BAH 95) recently published his second novel HUSK (ECW Press, 2012) to great reviews, including raves in The Toronto Star (a Best Read of Fall 2012), Quill & Quire, and BookList. He has appeared at Winnipeg's THIN AIR Festival and Toronto's International Festival of Authors.
Daria Salamon (BA 99) published The Prairie Bridesmaid, a spectacularly fun debut novel about the bonds that break and make family, friendship, and love. Her most recent book Don't Try This at Home: One Family's (mis) Adventures Abroad is co-authored by husband Rob Krause.
Margaret Sweatman(Collegiate 71, BA 74) has released a new novel The Gunsmith's Daughter. The story of a young woman travelling to Vietnam to see the impact of her father's weapons.
Jonny Symons (BA 07) published his first digital book which explores the fascinating and urban lifestyles of millennials
Linda Szyszkowski (BA, BED 09) and her husband Dan Clement who authored Secret Adventures of Tiny Toba, a prize winning children's book.
Joan Thomas (BA 72) first novel, Reading by Lightning, won the Amazon First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, Curiosity, her second novel, was also nominated for the IMPAC Award and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her most recent novel, The Opening Sky, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. Her new novel, Five Wives, won the 2019 Governor General's Literary Awards for the novel: Five Wives.
Janine Tougas (BA 73) has written four youth novels entitled The Voyage Series, Jaimie and the Bison Hunt, Gabriel Between Dog and Wolf, Harry and the Dark Horse, and Sara in Raven’s Clothes. They were published in French from 2013-2017 by Apprentissage Illimité Inc and translated in English in 2019. The two first novels are Canadian bestsellers in French.
Bill Valgardson (BA 61, DLITT 95) read with none other than W.P. Kinsella (a former student) in Vancouver, where their event, Bears and Butterflies: New Stories from Two Masters was held. Valgardson’s What The Bear Said: Skald tales from New Iceland folk tales from Lake Winnipeg was published in 2011 by Turnstone Press.
Katherena Vermette (BA4 12) has been shortlisted for a Governor General's Award for her debut novel, The Break, about a young Métis mother in Winnipeg’s North End.
Joshua Whitehead (BA 14, MA 15) is the multi award-winning author of full-metal indigiqueer, Jonny Appleseed and Making Love with the Land (forthcoming w/ Knopf Canada).
Armin Wiebe (BA 69) published Armin's Shorts, a series of short stories written over his 30 year writing career. Each of his tales stem from the familiarly fictitious Mennonite community of Gutenthal, re-imagined origin stories from the Tlįchǫ of the subarctic, and flights of pure fantasy set in modern day Winnipeg.
Non-Fiction
Kristine Alexander (BAH 02) published her new book Guiding Modern Girls, Girlhood, Empire and Internationalism in the 1920's and 1930's She is the Canada Research Chair in Child and Youth Studies Assistant Professor of History Director, Institute for Child and Youth Studies (I-CYS) at The University of Lethbridge.
Barbara Davis (BA 07) is the author of Managing Business Analysis Services: A Framework for Sustainable Projects and Corporate Strategy Success provides information on how to maximize efficiency and productivity of technology projects, obtain higher returns, and reduce operating costs.
Margot Fedoruk
Rob Fennell (BA 91) is the Academic Dean of Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, NS, and recently published a new book: The Rule of Faith and Biblical Interpretation: Reform, Resistance, and Renewal (Cascade, 2018).
Ralph Friesen (BAH 70, MMFT 01) is author of Dad, God, & Me, a biography of his father (a Mennonite minister in Steinbach) which is also a personal memoir of his search for him and his spiritual journey, diverging from his father's. He has also written
Fiona Green (BA 87) is a University of Winnipeg Professor who has published her eighth book, Coming Into Being: Mothers on Finding and Realizing Feminism. This is a Compelling text that adds multidisciplinary thought to several areas, especially Mothering-Motherhood Studies.The collection, co-edited by Dr. Green, Dr. Andrea O’Reilly, York University, and Victoria Bailey, a poet and PhD candidate, is published by Demeter Press.
Randall Grieser (BA 99) is author of The Ordinary Leader (ACHIEVE Publishing, 2017), and co-author of The Culture Question (ACHIEVE Publishing, 2019) and Don’t Blame the Lettuce: Insights to Help You Grow as a Leader and Nurture Your Workplace Culture (ACHIEVE Publishing, 2022). Don’t Blame the Lettuce explores a variety of leadership insights that will help leaders meet challenges, respond to opportunities, and nurture a healthy workplace culture in new and innovative ways.
Marieke Gruwel (BAH16) co-authored "Women's Contributions to Manitoba's Build
Environment: The case of Green Clankstein Russell" published in June 2021.
Gordon Hart (BSC4 82) has published the second edition of a dictionary of the terminology which can be encountered around discussions of plants, fungi, lichens, algae, actinomycetes, etc. Plants in Literature and Life: A Wide-Ranging Dictionary of Botanical Terms.
Michael Izen (BAH 91) has written a book about his journey with Prostate Cancer - Finger Up The Bum: An Illustrated Guide to Michael’s Prostate Cancer.
Craig Jones (BAH 86) has co-authored an award-winning book with his wife, Josephine Matyas, called Chasing the Blues: A Traveler’s Guide to America’s Music, published by Backbeat Books, an imprint of Globe Pequot.
Glen Johnson (BA 93) made the longlist for the 2016 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize.
Esyllt Jones (MA 97) wrote Imagining Winnipeg: History through the Photographs of L.B. Foote won the Best Illustrated Book of the Year in 2013.
Wab Kinew (Coll 99) won the Manitoba Book Awards McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award 2016: The Reason You Walk
Michael Labun (BAH 94) is co-author of The Culture Question: How to Create a Workplace Where People Like to Work (ACHIEVE Publishing, 2019). He is a Training Development Specialist at ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership & Workplace Performance.
strong>Janet Lewis-Anderson (BA 78) is the author of In The Arms of The Angels ‑ Our Journey Through The Darkness of Dementia documents the struggles that come with the progress of dementia and the effect the disease has on people’s lives.
Royden Loewen (BAH 77) wrote Horse and Buggy Genius: Listening to Mennonites Contest the Modern World Between 2009 and 2012, Royden Loewen and a team of researchers interviewed 250 Mennonites in thirty-five communities across the Americas about the impact of the modern world on their lives. Shortlisted Manitoba Book Awards 2017
Wendy Loewen (BED 93) is co-author of The Culture Question (ACHIEVE Publishing, 2019) and Don’t Blame the Lettuce: Insights to Help You Grow as a Leader and Nurture Your Workplace Culture (ACHIEVE Publishing, 2022). She is the Managing Director at ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership.
Alexander Loudon (BAH 94) is the author of Could Have Been Me (pen name Alexander London), her fourth book, is about her time behind the scenes with U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush at Camp David and the White House. Alexander is President and CEO of Sonic Omnimedia, Inc. in North Carolina, a full-service digital media company in its 6th year. She was awarded the 2011 Maryland Women in Business Champion of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. In 2014, she was awarded a scholarship to pursue graduate studies at Harvard to become a technology educator. Her other books include: Body Music: Diary of a Black Belt in Asia; "Hey, Stinky Feet!" The Complete Guide to Running Your First Marathon by Michael P. Dyer and Alexander Loudon; and 2019 (contributing author) by J.H. She has just released a music single with the help of Bon Jovi guitarist, Richie Sambora, under the Alexander London Band.
Robyn Maynard (Collegiate 04) along with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a finalist in the Governor Generals Literary Awards for the book Rehearsals for Living
Robin MacDonald (BA 95) made the longlist for the 2016 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize for her work "Undercurrent".
Joe Martin (BAH 58)wrote From Wall Street to Bay Street which is the first book for a lay audience to tackle the similarities and differences between the financial systems of Canada and the United States and offers a timely and accessible comparison of financial systems that reflects the political and cultural milieus of two of the world’s top ten economies. He is also the author of Relentless Change: A Casebook for the Study of Canadian Business History
Casebooks in business history are designed to instruct students in classrooms and boardrooms about the evolution of business management. The first casebook for the study of business history in a Canadian context, Joseph E. Martin's text will help students, both in the classroom and the boardroom, understand the Canadian economy and guide them in making sound decisions and contributing to a healthy, growing economy.
Maurice Mierau (BAH 84) and his wife, Betsy, travelled to Ukraine in 2005 to adopt two small boys, age three and five. After weeks of delays while navigating a tangled bureaucracy, they returned to Canada as a proud new family of four. Now what? In Detachment, Mierau probes not only the process of adoption but what comes after—the challenges of becoming a family, the strain on his marriage.
Brenda McKenzie (BED 90) self-published Loving You, a novel based on her experiences going through the trauma of helping a family member diagnosed with dementia. By using both factual and fictional elements, the novel tells a story that becomes both entertaining and informative.
Susan Misner (BA 93) authored It’s Your Money, Honey encourages women of all ages to take a greater interest and role in financial issues that affect their everyday lives and financial futures. This guide to wealth creation, wealth management, and financial protection provides advice that smart women need to know to take charge of their finances.
Sydney E. (Beth) Porter (BAH 66) is author of Accidental Friends: Stories from my Life in Community As the L’Arche Daybreak Community celebrates its 50th anniversary, this beautifully-written memoir tells the inside story of daily life shared by a community of people with and without intellectual disabilities.
Bill Redekop (BA 81) as a noted Winnipeg Free Press writer released Made in Manitoba: The Best of Open Road Stories, through MacIntyre Purcell Publishing in Lunenburg (2011).
Frederick Ross (BSC 84) has published 'A Deadly Thaw: The York Factory Connection'. It is historical fiction that deals with the fur trade , the Hudson's Bay Company at York Factory and the resurfacing of a deadly virus.
Jessica L. Scott-Reid (BA 05) and her husband, professional hockey player Brandon Reid, have created and published, The New Dry Land Workout, Practical Writing Exercises for Professional Hockey Players, in the 25th volume of the Journal of Poetry Therapy (JPT).
David BJ Snyder (BA 68) is launching his book Penticton Remembers Vol. III on Thursday 21 June 1300 hours at the Penticton Lakeside Resort.
Robin Summerfield (BA 95) Manitoba Book Awards Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award 2016. Book: Winnipeg Cooks: Signature Recipes from the City’s Top Chefs.
Janis Thiessen (MA 97), Associate Professor of History, launches her book Not Talking Union: An Oral History of North American Mennonites and Labour at McNally Robinson on Wednesday May 18 2016 7:00 pm, Winnipeg, Grant Park in the Atrium.
Susan Thompson (Collegiate 67, BA 71) is launched her new book: His Her Worship: Moments in History, Moments in Time, an autobiography with Terry Létienne
Gunars Tomsons (Collegiate 57, BA 61) To Be Fed (McNally Robinson, Winnipeg, 2012) follows the early years of a young Latvian refugee during the Second World War who flees his native country that is being invaded by the Soviet army and eventually immigrates to Canada. Gunars tells the real-life story of his journey to freedom. In Seeing the Sun (McNally Robinson, Winnipeg, 2014), Gunārs picks up his life story where To Be Fed left off, his arrival in Winnipeg. In this book, he chronicles his journey from music to professional philosophy and his experiences in Canada, the United States and post-Soviet Latvia.
Karen E. Toole (BA 72) Reflections A collection of previously written columns (1994-2001) which first appeared on the faith page of the Winnipeg Free Press. Shortlisted Manitoba Book Awards 2017
Oriole (Vane) Veldhuis (BED 85, MDiv 92) In 2012 Oriole published FOR ELISE: Unveiling the Forgotten Woman on the Criddle Homestead, a work of creative non-fiction about her great-grandmother who grew up in Heidelberg and toiled from 1882-1903 on the Criddle Homestead near Shilo, Manitoba.
Douglas Woods (MDIV 94) has published a book on media relationships. He has gleaned from over 94 interviews and press released for his new book THINK HEADLINES (Turning your stories into headlines). These headlines have included a range of stories that have appeared in newspaper, magazines, radio and TV. In this book he outlines the principles and practices that have provided him repeated success in telling stories both locally and nationally.
Robert Wozny (PACE 06, BA 11) has written Storytelling for Business The Art and Science of Creating Connection in the Digital Age. Storytelling for Business reveals why storytelling remains the most impactful way to create a meaningful and sustainable connection with the people who matter the most to your business, and how to tell YOUR story well.
Academic
Daniel, Brodsky (Collegiate 76, BAH 84) along with John Bradford & Fabian Saleh has edited the second edition of the textbook Sex Offenders Identification, Risk Assessment, Treatment, and Legal Issues which has been released by Oxford University Press.
Linda Lori Burgess (BA 74) has published the book “Five Minutes to Curtain - A Teacher’s Guide for Creating and Staging Original Plays” J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing 2022
Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov's (BA 93)book, Dignity Therapy: Final Words for Final Days, has received the 2012 Prose Award for Clinical Medicine. The Prose Awards are the American publishers' awards for professional and scholarly excellence.
Peter Denton (BAH 80) launched his new book Live Close to Home (Rocky Mountain Books) on Sunday, November 27, 2016.
Daniel W. Doerksen (BA 57)At the age of 80 Daniel published Picturing Religious Experience: George Herbert, Calvin, and the Scriptures (University of Delaware Press, 2011) and has also published Conforming to the Word: Herbert, Donne, and the English Church before Laud.
Ryan Eyford (BAH 01) launched his new book, White Settler Reserve: New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West.
Niki Gomez-Perales (BA 94) wrote Attachment Focused Trauma Treatment for Children and Adolescents: Phase Oriented Strategies for Addressing Complex Trauma Disorders. Gomez-Perales brings together two powerful treatment directions that expand the knowledge and skills available to child and adolescent trauma therapists.
Gordon Thomas Hart (BSC 82) His latest book is a technical dictionary of botany, Plants in Literature and Life: a wide‑ranging dictionary of botanical terms.
Linda Huebert Hecht (BA 65Linda’s book Women in Early Austrian Anabaptism, Their Days, Their Stories was published in 2009 by Pandora Press in Kitchener, Ontario.
Jamie Howison (BA 83) God's Mind in That Music will be of interest to those concerned with the intersection of music and religion, and also to John Coltrane fans, students of jazz studies, and anyone who believes music matters. Jamie draws the worlds of theology and jazz into an active and vibrant conversation.
Jonathon Ullyot (Coll 96) The Medieval Presence in Modernist Literature rethinks the influence that early medieval studies and Grail narratives had on modernist literature. Through examining several canonical works, from Henry James' The Golden Bowl to Samuel Beckett's Molloy, Ullyot argues that these texts serve as a continuation of the Grail legend inspired by medieval scholarship of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Poetry
Rose Condo (BAH 00) debut poetry collection After the Storm contains the three unabridged scripts of her acclaimed spoken word theatre shows, The Geography of Me, How to Starve an Artist and The Empathy Experiment.
Kristian Enright (BAH 06) 's book Sonar won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book and the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2013.
Joel Robert Ferguson (BA4 18) won the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry for The Lost Cafeteria at the 2022 Manitoba Book Awards.
Catherine Hunter(BAH 86) Manitoba Book Award Winner 2020. Lansdowne Prize for Poetry: St. Boniface Elegies, published by Signature Editions Canada Council for the Arts : Governor General's Literary Awards 2019 Finalist for the novel: St. Boniface Elegies.
Hanna Green (BA 18) won the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry for her debut collection Xanax Cowboy published by House of Anansi Press.
Katherena Vermette (BA4 12) won the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry in 2013 for her collection North End Love Songs.
Marianne (Forsyth) Vespry (BA 57) published a poetry anthology Celebrating Poets Over 70, which she co-edited with Ellen B. Ryan. She generously donated a copy to The University of Winnipeg Library.
Romanowski, Ron (BA 80) launches his new book of poetry If 30,000 Strikers Marched Today May 2019.
Children/Young Adult
Darlyne Bautista (BAH 05) wrote a children's book to be used by the Winnipeg School Division in it's Filipino bilingual school program. Where is Winnipeg? is a heart-warming tale that will give kids a sense of what it may mean to move from the Philippines to Canada.
Sharon Chisvin (BA 80) & Carol Leszcz (BA 82) co-wrote The Girl Who Cannot Eat Peanut Butter (2012) is a rhyming story for young children coping with food allergies. Sharon wrote the story and her friend Carol illustrated it, shortly before passing away.
Brenlee Coates (BA4 09) won the Children's Illustration - Manuela Dias Book Design and Illustration Award for You Came From My Heart illustrations by Roberta Landreth at the 2022 Manitoba Book Awards.
Kevin Fournier (Collegiate 92) won the McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award for his dark, supernatural novel The Green-Eyed Queen of Suicide City. It's set both in Winnipeg and the afterlife and tackles the issue of teen suicide.
Carol Matas (Collegiate 67) is the author of several books including A Struggle For Hope - the book explores the 1944 rebellion by inmates of Auschwitz and the post-Holocaust immigration to Israel, and Who's Looking?: How Animals See the World - through clever illustrations and scientific prose, we are reminded that while we may see things differently, we all share this life together on planet Earth.
Andreas Oertel (BA 88)is the author of Prisoner of Warren When his dad decides to hire a German prisoner of war to help out on their New Brunswick farm, thirteen-year-old Warren Webb is pretty sure the family is doomed. Shortlisted Manitoba Book Awards 2017
Bill Richardson (BA 76, LLD 98) was the Manitoba Book Award Winner 2020 McNally Robinson Book for Young People, Younger Category The Promise Basket illustrated by Slavka Kolesar, published by Groundwood Books.
David Alexander Robertson (BA '99)
2016 Beatrice Mosionier Award for Aboriginal Writer of the Year Award: 2nd Place
Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story She left her home to attend residential school and high school in a small town in Manitoba. On November 13, 1971, Betty was abducted and brutally murdered by four young men. This book is a true account. Shortlisted Manitoba Book Awards 2017
Will I See? May, a young teenage girl, traverses the city streets, finding keepsakes in different places along her journey. When May and her kookum make these keepsakes into a necklace, it opens a world of danger and fantasy. Shortlisted Manitoba Book Awards 2017
While We Were Alone In this illustrated book for children ages 4 to 8, a curious girl learns about how her grandmother held on to cultural touchstones when she was a child at a Native American residential school. Shortlisted Manitoba Book Awards 2017
2016 Beatrice Mosionier Award for Aboriginal Writer of the Year Award: 2nd Place
2021 recipient of the Writers' Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award.
Worldwide production rights to his ongoing epic young-adult Mesewa Saga series of books were recently acquired by ABC Signature, part of Disney Television Studios.
David A. Robertson and Vancouver illustrator Julie Flett won the Governor General's Literary Award 2021 in the young people's literature — illustrated books category for the picture book On the Trapline.
Tasha Spillet-Sumner (BA 12, BED 12) authored I Sang You Down From The Stars A love letter from an indigenous mother to her new baby. Debuted at number 3 on a New York Times best sellers list. This book was also awarded the McNally Robinson Book For Young People at the 2022 Manitoba Book Awards.
Linda Szyszkowski (BA & BED 2009, PACE 2012) co-authored The Secret Adventures of Tiny Toba: Gold Star Gratitude — First Journey. Written and illustrated by Linda and designed by her husband, Daniel Clement, the book features the couple — who are both teachers — their dog June and protagonist Tiny Toba, a teeny-tiny teddy bear. Based on a true story for all ages, Tiny Toba travels the world, teaching the importance of sprinkling gratitude into every area of your life.
Tougas, Janine (BA 73) has written four youth novels entitled The Voyage Series, Jaimie and the Bison Hunt, Gabriel Between Dog and Wolf, Harry and the Dark Horse, and Sara in Raven’s Clothes. They were published in French from 2013-2017 by Apprentices Illimité Inc and translated in English in 2019. The two first novels are Canadian bestsellers in French.
Plays
Rick Chafe (BA 81) Marriage: A Demolition in Two Acts The quickest way to dismantle a marriage might be to dismantle your kitchen. Shortlisted Manitoba Book Awards 2017
Trish Cooper (BAH 2010) Social Studies What does it actually mean to take in someone who has experienced the atrocities of a brutal war intent on genocide and how do they adjust to a vastly different society? Shortlisted Manitoba Book Awards 2017
Steven Ratzlaff (BAH 94) Reservations This is actually two thematically-linked one-act plays, titled Pete's Reserve and Standing Reserve. Shortlisted Manitoba Book Awards 2017
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