Photo by Will O'Hare
I’m from Kingston, Ontario, Canada. I studied cognitive science at the University of Toronto for 2.5 years, then taught English in Wuhan, China, canvassed in Manchester, UK, and extracted landmines in Cambodia. Then I returned to Canada and finished my B.A., helped launch and run Double Double Land, then did a Creative Writing M.F.A. at the University of Alabama. In 2016 I published a book of short stories, The Jokes. I have been awarded by the Edward F. Albee Foundation, the Truman Capote Scholarship Fund, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and I was shortlisted for the Metatron Prize for Rising Authors. From 2011-2014 as a graduate student I taught creative writing at the University of Alabama, and I taught writing as a professor from 2015-2018 at George Brown College. In 2019, with Jade Blair, I released a web series about people experimenting with open relationships, called Miss Misery.
Here is my Twitter, my personal Facebook, my rarely-updated professional Facebook, and my Instagram.
In 2020 I became a web developer, but now I’m back to doing writing stuff for work.
I live in New York.
RECENT READINGS
Jun 21, 2019: New York: Poetry at The Baumann V, The Baumann
Jun 20, 2019: New York: Unnamed reading with Precious Okoyomon, et al, Honey’s
Jun 10, 2019: New York: The Farm reading series, Starr Bar
November 2, 2018: Toronto: Jordan Moffatt’s book launch for Clicking Into Place, TRANZAC
October 5, 2018: Toronto: Vacant Nobodies, Mây
August 20, 2018: St. Erme, France: Unnamed reading at Performing Arts Forum
Jan 22, 2017: Toronto: Junction Reads series
Sept 27-29, 2016: Winnipeg International Writers' Festival
Sept 6, 2016: Montreal: Resonance Reading Series
May 25, 2016: New York: Co-Book Launch with Bud Smith, Molasses Books
May 24, 2016: New York: Cool As Fuck series, Pete’s Candy Store
May 5, 2016: Toronto: 'Life of a Craphead hosts an unnamed reading with Alli Simone Defeo', Videofag
Apr 30, 2016: Montreal: METATRON x WONDER group reading, Drawn & Quarterly, 7pm
Apr 28, 2016: Montreal: BookThug Fiction Launch, Drawn & Quarterly
Apr 26, 2016: Toronto: Doored, Double Double Land, 8pm
Apr 21, 2016: Toronto: BookThug Group Launch, The Garrison, 7pm
Apr 3, 2016: Toronto: The Jokes Book Launch, Double Double Land
February 19, 2016: Toronto: Long Winter, The Great Hall