Emily Urquhart (born 1977) is a Canadian writer.Sue Carter, "Emily Urquhart has proof that people stay creative as they get older: her artist father Tony Urquhart, still working at 86". Toronto Star, September 7, 2020. She is most noted for her 2022 book Ordinary Wonder Tales, which was a shortlisted finalist for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.Brad Wheeler, "Shortlist for $75,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction includes past winner John Vaillant, scholar Christina Sharpe". The Globe and Mail, September 20, 2023.
Background The daughter of artist Tony Urquhart and writer Jane Urquhart, she did her undergraduate education at Queen's University, and worked as a freelance writer and book reviewer before completing her Ph.D. in folklore studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland.Sue Carter, "Family inheritance: Emily Urquhart’s search for a cultural understanding of genetics". Quill & Quire, March 2015.
Writing career Urquhart's first book, Beyond the Pale: Folklore, Family and the Mystery of Our Hidden Genes, was published in 2015. A memoir of her experience giving birth to a daughter who was diagnosed with albinism, the book was shortlisted for British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction in 2016."Short list announced for B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction". Vancouver Sun, December 9, 2015.
In 2020 she published The Age of Creativity: Art, Memory, My Father and Me, a memoir of her childhood experiences learning about art from her father.Megan Cole, "Megan Cole Reviews Emily Urquhart’s The Age of Creativity: Art, Memory, My Father and Me". Hamilton Review of Books, November 16, 2020.
Ordinary Wonder Tales, a collection of essays about the intersection between memory and cultural folklore, was published in fall 2022.Robert J. Wiersema, "Fairy Tales aren’t just for kids: Emily Urquhart on the stories we tell ourselves". Toronto Star, November 24, 2022.
Urquhart currently teaches creative writing at the University of Waterloo.Isabel Buckmaster, "Kitchener author's new book finds wonder in the ordinary". CityNews Kitchener, December 1, 2022.
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