Dr. Suzette Mayr

Pronouns: she/her/they/them

Positions

Professor

Faculty of Arts , Department of English

Contact information

smayr@ucalgary.ca

Phone number

Office: +1 (403) 220-4659

Location

Office: SS1048

I prefer email for all correspondence.

Background

Educational Background

PhD Creative Practice, University of New South Wales, 2016

M.A. English, University of Alberta, 1992

B.A. English (Hons.), University of Calgary, 1990

Suzette Mayr CV

Biography

Dr. Suzette Mayr is the author of six novels, including her most recent book The Sleeping Car Porter, winner of the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and nominee for the Republic of Consciousness Prize (US and Canada) and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction (longlisted). Her novel Monoceros won the ReLit and the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Awards, and was nominated for the 2011 Giller Prize, the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction, and Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction. Her novel The Widows was a finalist for the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean region. Dr. Mayr is a former president of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, and has been teaching creative writing at the University of Calgary since 2003. Dr. Mayr's research interests include: Creative Writing, Canadian Literature, Haunted House / Horror Literature, and Australian Literature. Dr. Mayr is also a 2023 recipient of a Killam Annual Professor Award.

Research

Areas of Research

Creative Writing, Contemporary Canadian Literature, Haunted House / Horror Literature, Australian Literature

Courses

Course number	Course title	Semester
ENGL 387	The Harlem Renaissance	Fall 2022
ENGL 594	Creative Writing: Popular Genre	Fall 2022
ENGL 694	Topics in Creative Writing: Popular Genre	Fall 2022

Projects

The Sleeping Car Porter (novel)

Published Sept. 2022. Funded by a SSHRC Insight grant (2013-2017)

Awards

Scotiabank Giller Prize, Scotiabank / Giller Foundation. 2022
Shortlist, Republic of Consciousness Prize for The Sleeping Car Porter , 2023
Longlist, Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for The Sleeping Car Porter, 2023
Killam Annual Professor Award, Killam Program. 2023
Finalist, Georges Bugnet Award for Best Novel for Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall, Writers' Guild of Alberta. 2018
ReLit Award for Monoceros, 2012
City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Award ($5000), 2012
Scotiabank Giller Prize Longlist Nominee, 2011
SSHRC Insight grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 2013
Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction Nominee, 2012
Supervisory Excellence Award Nomination, 2013
Faculty of Arts Distinguished Research Award, 2012
Toronto Public Library Book of the Month, 2012
Globe and Mail's "Best 100 Books of 2011" List, 2011
Maisonneuve's "Maisy's Best Books of 2011" List, 2011
Vancouver Sun's "2011's Top 10 Books" List, 2011
Finalist, Commonwealth Prize for Best Book for in the Canadian-Caribbean Region, 1998
Finalist, Georges Bugnet Award for Best Novel for Moon Honey, Writers' Guild of Alberta. 1996
Finalist, Henry Kreisel Award for Best First Book for Moon Honey, Writers' Guild of Alberta. 1996
2021

Publications

The Sleeping Car Porter. Mayr, Suzette. Coach House Books. (2022)
"Finding Black Queer Life Between the Lines of History: Suzette Mayr on Her Search for the Sleeping Car Porter". Suzette Mayr. Literary Hub. (2022)
Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall. Mayr, Suzette. Coach House Books. (2017)
Monoceros. Mayr, Suzette. Coach House Books. (2011)
Venous Hum. Mayr, Suzette. Arsenal Pulp Press. (2004)
The Widows. Mayr, Suzette. NeWest Press. (1998)
Moon Honey. Mayr, Suzette. NeWest Press. (1995)
“The Fall of the House of Buck: The "Haunted" House as Revelatory Space in Daniel David Moses’s Big Buck City.” . Mayr, Suzette. Studies in Canadian Literature / Études En Littérature Canadienne (SCL/ÉLU). 91–107. (2019)
“"Misfit" College: The Sentient House as Thing in Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock.”. Mayr, Suzette. Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/New Zealand Literature. 393–406. (2017)
“‘A Place With Its Own Shying: Countering the Aboriginal Uncanny in Vivienne Cleven’s Her Sister’s Eye.”. Mayr, Suzette. Journal of the Association for Studies in Australian Literature. (2017)
“‘House of Mirrors’: The Sentient House as Homosocial and Intimate Space in Andrew Pyper’s The Guardians.” . Mayr, Suzette. Horror Studies. 97-114. (2017)
“Absent Black Women in Dany Laferriere’s How to Make Love With a Negro.” . Mayr, Suzette. Canadian Literature. 31-45. (2006)

In the News

“The Best Historical Fiction of 2022” . New York Times. (2022)
Review of The Sleeping Car Porter (starred review). Publisher's Weekly. (2022)
"The Sleeping Car Porter" (review). Kirkus Reviews. (2022)
"Suzette Mayr’s novel ‘The Sleeping Car Porter’ an artfully constructed story that moves, beguiles, and satisfies". Toronto Star. (2022)
Crushed Blackademics: The Case for Black Women to Ditch Academia (Review of Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall). Bitch Media. (2017)
"The Best Canadian Fiction of 2022". CBC Books. (2022)
Book Review: Monoceros, by Suzette Mayr. National Post. (2011)