Mona Awad
Mona Awad | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 22, 1978 Montreal, Quebec |
| Occupation | novelist, short stories |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Period | 2010s |
| Notable works | 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl and Bunny |
Mona Awad is a Canadian novelist and short-story writer.[1] Her debut book, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, a novel (structured using linked short stories) about a woman's lifelong struggle with body image issues,[2] won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award[3] and was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016.[4] She was inspired to write the book because of her own experiences growing up and struggling with her own body image.[5] In the Los Angeles Times, Awad has been quoted as saying, she "made [music] playlists for every chapter" in 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl because it helped her "immerse" herself in the story, helping her to better "access it." [6]
Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, she spent her teen years in Mississauga, Ontario,[1] then studied English literature at York University and went on to earn a masters in English at the University of Edinburgh, an MFA at Brown University,[1] and a PhD at the University of Denver.[7] Her short fiction and non-fiction writing has been published in magazines including McSweeney's, The Walrus, Joyland, Post Road, St. Petersburg Review, and Maisonneuve. When Awad began writing as a columnist for Maisonneuve, she used the pseudonym Veronica Tartley.
Awad desires for her stories to provide readers with "a sense of connection" so that "people [may] feel less alone."[8]
In 2017, Awad's short story Woman Causes Avalanche[9] was published by the L.A. Review of Books.
Her next novel, Bunny, was published in June, 2019, by Viking Press.[10]
She has lived in the US since 2009, currently in Boston.
References
- ^ a b c "Mona Awad gives us 13 ways to look at 'fat girls'". Toronto Star, February 21, 2016.
- ^ "Review: Mona Awad’s 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl is beautifully told and profoundly sensitive". The Globe and Mail, February 19, 2016.
- ^ "Mona Awad wins Amazon.ca First Novel Award". CBC Books, May 26, 2016.
- ^ "Thien, Barwin, Donoghue make Giller Prize shortlist ". The Globe and Mail, September 26, 2016.
- ^ "Mona Awad Wants You to Confront the Word "Fat"". ELLE. 2016-02-24. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
- ^ Graham, By Latria. "Mona Awad on her sharp-voiced debut, '13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl'". latimes.com. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
- ^ "Mona Awad wins Amazon.ca First Novel Award: ‘When I was writing the book, frankly, I never thought it would see the light of day’". The Globe and Mail, May 26, 2016.
- ^ "We Do Adjust Our Reality for Other People: An Interview with Mona Awad". Electric Literature. 2016-03-02. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
- ^ "LARB Lit: Woman Causes Avalanche - Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
- ^ "28 works of Canadian fiction to watch for in spring 2019". CBC Books, January 25, 2019.
External links
- Official website
- Mona Awad: For award-winning writing and fearless storytelling, Canadian Arab Institute, Institut canado-arabe, CAI, Toronto
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 21st-century Canadian novelists
- 21st-century Canadian short story writers
- 1978 births
- Canadian women novelists
- Canadian women short story writers
- Canadian magazine writers
- Writers from Mississauga
- Writers from Montreal
- York University alumni
- Brown University alumni
- Living people
- 21st-century Canadian women writers