Candas Jane Dorsey
Candas Jane Dorsey was born and still resides in Edmonton, Alberta. She writes across genre boundaries, writing poetry, fiction, main-stream and speculative, short and long form, arts journalism and arts advocacy. Dorsey has also written television and stage scripts, magazine and newspaper articles, and reviews. Since the 1980s she has been a strong presence in the speculative fiction world in Canada as a publisher, editor, and community-builder. She helped found, and served on the board of, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and SF Canada. She currently teaches writing and communication studies, and does workshops and readings.
“As a tale that is a successful blending of mystery, advocacy and speculative whimsy, He Wasn’t There Again Today is both accomplished in narrative and passionately clear-eyed in its call to end the problems it so articulately describes.”
– Lucy E.M. Black
Her published books include speculative novels Black Wine, A Paradigm of Earth, and (upcoming) (At the) Freak Show; mysteries The Adventures of Isabel, What’s the Matter with Mary Jane?, and He Wasn’t There Again Today (the Epitome Apartments series); YA novel The Story of My Life, Ongoing, by C.J. Cobb; also short story collections Machine Sex and other stories, Dark Earth Dreams, Vanilla and other stories, and ICE and other stories; four poetry books; several anthologies edited/co-edited, and numerous published stories, poems, reviews, and critical essays. Her books have received numerous literary awards, and her work has been translated into German, French, Greek, Japanese and (allegedly, and illicitly) Russian.
She was founding president of SFCanada, and has been president of the Writers Guild of Alberta. In 2005 she was awarded the Province of Alberta Centennial Gold Medal for artistic achievement and community work, and in 2017 the WGA Golden Pen Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Literary Arts. She was inducted into the City of Edmonton Arts and Cultural Hall of Fame in 2019. Other awards include the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame 2018, YWCA Woman of the Year Arts and Culture 1988, and an Edmonton Arts Achievement Award 1988. She has won two human rights awards and served on many community boards and committees working for neighbourhoods, heritage, social planning, equality of policing, and human rights advocacy.
Dorsey is also a visual artist. Recently, she returned to her interest inn making visual art. From vivid colours and strong texture in acrylics to precise and realistic in watercolours, Candas employs a variety of art forms to showcase a freeing, fun, and inter-referential expression.
She was born as patient number 1768 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and lives in inner city Edmonton with her partner, the writer/performer Timothy J. Anderson, and two Pomeranians who will likely appear throughout this website, to improve its cuteness quotient.
