Suzette Mayr is a Canadian novelist who has written six critically acclaimed novels and is currently a professor at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Arts. Mayr's works have won and been nominated for several literary awards.
Biography
Suzette Mayr was born in Calgary, Alberta. Originally planning to study science in her post-secondary career, Mayr changed focus due to her strong performance in English. A creative writing course at the University of Calgary led to her decision to pursue a writing career. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in English. Following her graduation from the University of Calgary, Mayr went on to acquire a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Alberta and a PhD from the University of New South Wales.
Mayr worked as a waitress and sandwich maker before establishing herself as a professional writer. In addition to her six novels (Moon Honey, The Widows, Venous Hum, Monoceros, Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall, and The Sleeping Car Porter), Mayr has published books of poetry and co-edited a literary anthology. Her novels and other literary works have been nominated for several awards. In 2002, Mayr participated in the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program at the University of Calgary, where she is now a professor in the Department of English and teaches courses on creative writing and contemporary literature studies. Mayr is of German and Afro-Caribbean descent and often explores issues of race, identity, and sex in her writing through the stylistic use of humour, cultural mythologies, and surreal imagery.
Mayr is a past president of the Writers' Guild of Alberta. In 2010, she served on the jury for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers, selecting Nancy Jo Cullen as that year's prize winner.
The Sleeping Car Porter (2022) The Sleeping Car Porter, published in 2022, centres on R.T. Baxter, a closeted gay Black Canadian man working as a porter on a cross-Canada railway. Publishers Weekly named it one of the best works of fiction published in 2022.
The novel was the winner of the 2022 Giller Prize. In 2023, it was longlisted for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2023 Governor General's Awards. It was also shortlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award.
Awards Year Work Award Category Result Ref1996Moon HoneyAlberta Literary AwardsGeorges Bugnet Award for Best Novel Henry Kreisel Award for Best First Book 2004 The Widows Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book (Canada and the Caribbean) 2011Monoceros Ferro-Grumley Award LGBTQ Fiction Giller Prize — Alberta Literary AwardsCity of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize 2012ReLit Awards Novel 2022The Sleeping Car Porter Giller Prize — 2023 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction — Governor General's Award English-language fiction 2024 Dublin Literary Award Fiction
Works
Novels Moon Honey (1995) The Widows (1998) Venous Hum (2004) Monoceros (2011) Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall (2017) The Sleeping Car Porter (2022)
Poetry Zebra Talk (1991) Tale (2001)
Anthologized works "Scalps" in Boundless Alberta (1993) "Glass Anatomy" in Eye Wuz Here (1996) "Toot Suite Matricia" in Threshold (1999) and So Long Been Dreaming (2004) "Nipple Gospel" in And Other Stories (2001)
References
External links In Silhouette: Portraits of Alberta Writers at Frontenac House, 2009, by Bob Stallworthy (see pages 118–124 for detailed profile of Suzette Mayr). Suzette Mayr's University of Calgary profile