Five Stars for HOW TO BE FOUND: “an excellent novel”

Some recent media attention for my new novel:

CBC Books: “When Trissa goes missing one night everyone writes her off, but Michie refuses to give up on her friend. Her search for Trissa takes her to dangerous places, all the while a serial killer is targeting girls in their city.” Read: 8 Canadian books to read if you loved The Future by Catherine Leroux

SesayArts Magazine: “she reminds us of the power of connection, the strength of chosen families, and the courage that it takes to be found … in a world where it’s all too easy to lose our way.” Read: In Emily Pohl-Weary’s new YA mystery “How to be Found”, a Toronto teen risks all for her chosen family

Canadian Review of Materials: “a coming-of-age story, a romance and a mystery all in one” and “a shout-out to non-traditional families and friendships” Read: Review of How to Be Found

New essay: “Stories as Roadmaps: How Settings Shape Us”

I scraped off memories and wrote from the heart for All Lit Up about how a story’s setting matters and the places I’ve lived have changed me.

A quote:

“We chose to cross the country on ground, rather than in a plane, so our brains could absorb how far we were moving and how the geography changed. As I soaked in the changing landscape outside the window, I thought about the fact that to my child self in Parkdale, this move would be no different than travelling to outer space.”

and another:

“In the most compelling stories, readers enter a lucid dream. Reality disappears and they see, feel, hear, smell, and possibly even taste the imagined world.”

Keep reading here: https://alllitup.ca/stories-as-roadmaps-how-settings-shape-us-and-our-characters-by-emily-pohl-weary/

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Love from my alma maters

I have a soft spot for independent student press, having written for them when I was a student, so I was pleased to do interviews for these two profile articles.

York University is where I did a Bachelor’s Degree in Translation. Sydney Smith wrote “Emily Pohl-Weary, York Alumna, discusses her new young-adult novel for Excalibur”: https://www.excal.on.ca/arts/2023/10/17/emily-pohl-weary-york-alumna-discusses-her-new-young-adult-novel/

An excerpt:

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(Though the article mentions that I’m still running workshops in Parkdale, I haven’t been able to work in the community where I grew up since I moved away from Toronto seven years ago.)

University of Toronto is where I completed my doctorate in Adult Education and Community Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Olya Fedossenko wrote the following profile for The Varsity, “’‘Writing is my default:’ An award-winning YA novel author on her creative journey”: https://thevarsity.ca/2023/10/21/writing-is-my-default-an-award-winning-ya-novel-author-on-her-creative-journey/

A small taste:

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“propulsive, compelling reading”

A collection of links to media attention for my novel How to Be Found in this post…

TV Segment: GlobalTV’s national The Morning Show interviewed me about the novel and its Toronto setting. Watch here: https://globalnews.ca/video/10048101/emily-pohl-weary-on-her-new-young-adult-book-how-to-be-found/

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Interview: Zoomer Book Club’s Rosemary Counter called the novel “a nearly perfect specimen in 269 fast-paced, plot-driven pages.” Read it here: “Emily Pohl-Weary Captures the Angst and Drama of Teen Life in ‘How to Be Found’”

Article: In SesayArts Magazine, writer Arpita Ghosal described the novel as “a heartfelt exploration of chosen family.” Read: “In Emily Pohl-Weary’s new YA mystery How to be Found, a Toronto teen risks all for her chosen family”

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Excerpt: You can read the first few pages of my novel in Vancouver’s entertainment paper The Georgia Straight. Read here: Local author’s new novel follows inner-city teens on the fringes

Review: Author Rhea Tregebov wrote a review that captured the essence of what my novel’s about for the British Columbia Review. A quote: “While Pohl-Weary’s feisty, resilient young protagonists are capable of both declaring and engaging in battle in this war [on girls], the visceral challenges they face are chilling.” Read here: “Teenage girls, ‘unredacted’”

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Radio Clip: What She Said podcast and radio show dive “into the realm of young adult literature with Emily Pohl-Weary. Her upcoming novel, “How to Be Found,” promises a gripping tale of love, loss, and the ties that bind us. Perfect for those cozy fall evenings, Emily’s storytelling is sure to captivate.” Listen to the episode on Spotify

Radio Clip: Richard Crouse interviewed me for The Richard Crouse Show. Listen here - my segment starts around 22min.

❤️❤️❤️ for HOW TO BE FOUND

Toronto Star:
“Pohl-Weary has written novels, poetry and young adult fiction and now sets her latest, a (not just for young adults) thriller, in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, amidst the disappearance of a teenage party girl. The publisher describes it as a darker, grittier Nancy Drew.’
Read “The 30 (plus!) new reads we can’t wait to cosy up with this fall” here.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC):
“How to be Found is a YA novel about best friends Michie and Trissa, who were raised by their single mothers in the same duplex. At 16-years-old, the friends suddenly find themselves with different interests — Trissa loves going to the hottest nightclub in town, while Michie would prefer to stay in reading her favourite book. When Trissa goes missing one night everyone writes her off, but Michie refuses to give up on her friend. Her search for Trissa takes her to dangerous places, all the while a serial killer is targeting girls in their city.”
Read “25 Canadian YA books to read in fall 2023” here.

49th Shelf:
Emily Pohl-Weary is back with How to Be Found (September), about inner-city teens who live on a razor’s edge and understand that chosen family is just as important as blood. 
Read “Most Anticipated: Our Fall 2023 Books for Young Readers Preview” round-up here.

Advanced Praise for HOW TO BE FOUND!

Three of my fave authors–Lawrence Hill, Heather O’Neill and Uzma Jalaluddin–read my forthcoming novel HOW TO BE FOUND (which you can preorder now!!!and wrote wonderful reviews for the back cover:

“Emily Pohl-Weary’s wonderfully entertaining novel teems with the exuberant vitality of two teen girls who - despite obstacles that are sometimes serious and at other times hilarious - insist on defining themselves on their own terms and living freely and with self-confidence.”
Lawrence Hill, author of Beatrice and Croc Harry and The Book of Negroes

“In How to Be Found, teenagers dance on the precipitous line between childhood and adulthood, shocked by their conflicting desires for freedom and love. Emily Pohl-Weary celebrates the families that teens create for themselves and examines the value of bold, powerful, and transformative childhood friendships. This is a rich and inclusive portrait of modern adolescence and its rejection of the patriarchal idea of family.”
Heather O'Neill, author of Lullabies for Little Criminals and When We Lost Our Heads

An endearing portrait of the power of friendship and found family, How to Be Found is an engaging mix of mystery and coming-of-age, set in a gritty Toronto neighbourhood. Not to be missed.
Uzma Jalaluddin, author of Much Ado About Nada and Hana Khan Carries On

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Two poems in THE TADDLE CREEK BOOK!

Taddle Creek, Toronto’s iconic general-interest literary mag, called it a day after 25 years and 50 issues. They went out with a bang: The Taddle Creek BookI Inside its pages are two of my poems and 69 other pieces by almost as many authors, illustrators, and comix artists!

Buy the book and experience the nostalgia of reading writing by and about Toronto (mostly) that the magazine published over the past quarter decade.

You can also read several of my poems on their website:

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HOW TO BE FOUND, my new YA novel, will be published in autumn

Super exciting news! Arsenal Pulp Press, one of my favourite publishers, bought my new young adult novel and it will be launched in the fall of 2023. 

More info will be coming soon, but How to Be Found is probably my most autobiographical fiction yet. It’s set in Parkdale, the Toronto neighbourhood where I grew up, and features a ramshackle old house co-owned by two single activist mothers (also like my mother and her best friend). It’s about two best friends who’ve grown up together and have drifted apart when one of them goes missing.

They’ve already designed the cover, which I LOVE:

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The Witch’s Circle Round-Up

It’s been a busy couple weeks! Check out articles, a “making of” video, and other links celebrating my audio play “The Witch’s Circle” and Odyssey Theatre’s The Other Path series!

My chat with CBC Radio Vancouver’s On the Coast with Gloria Macarenko.

A couple articles about Odyssey Theatre’s The Other Path audio drama/podcast series: Broadway World, Ottawa Citizen.

My essay “Desperately Seeking Feminist, Flawed, and Fabulous Characters,” about my lifelong love affair with larger-than-life womyn characters.

A “meet the writer” video in which I talk with Odyssey Theatre’s dramaturge Jan Irwin about inspirations for the characters, themes, and the importance of BFFs.

Spotify playlist: Baba Yaga’s on Repeat (inspired by the play).

Creature Feature spotlight: A Twitter thread about monster houses like Baba’s hungry house on chicken legs.

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Stream The Witch’s Circle!

I’m so pleased that my original ½ hour play, THE WITCH’S CIRCLE, commissioned by Odyssey Theatre in Ottawa, can now be streamed online!!!

Listen to it on their website: https://theotherpath.ca/listen

THE WITCH’S CIRCLE is the first of five audio dramas by Canadian writers for Odyssey’s series of folk tale retellings. The other plays, written by Marty Chan, Jo Walton, and others, will be released every two weeks for the next two months. Odyssey Theatre, along with gifted actors, musicians, and sound engineers, imagined this series at the beginning of the pandemic and have worked hard to make the productions come alive.

Here’s a description:

In THE WITCH’S CIRCLE, Lisa and her best friend Manda, who are living in a Rexdale group home for teens, seek out the scary witch in the woods called Bony Legs for help with a #metoo situation. They find themselves facing gruelling tasks in a fight for their lives, but if they pass her tests, she can grant any wish imaginable… It’s a “spirited and chilling tale of empowerment from novelist, poet and biographer, Emily Pohl-Weary, that was inspired by a Russian folktale featuring Baba Yaga and Vassalisa the Brave.”

I hope you take some time to listen. It’s creepy, nerve-wracking, funny (in my opinion, at least), and a timely retelling of an old Russian tale that I’ve always loved.

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New Poem in Taddle Creek

My poem, “The Day is a Father,” is featured on page 65 of Taddle Creek, Toronto’s “general interest literary magazine.“ 

Sadly, after a 25-year run, the issue on newsstands will be Taddle Creek’s very last.Two and half decades in the life of a literary magazine is at least a trillion years in, I don’t know, anywhere else. I’m so pleased that I get to be part of it. Buy a copy before this gem of a magazine disappears.

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My Audio Play “The Witch’s Circle” Launches on Oct 5, 2022

Super excited that you can stream my first produced play, “The Witch’s Circle,” on Oct 5 from your home! It’s an audio drama with professional actors, music, and sound effects.

In it, Bony Legs, the infamous witch in the woods, can grant any wish imaginable… at a price. When Lisa, a teen living in a suburban group home, is blackmailed by one of the staff members, she and her BFF track down the witch for help, only to find herself facing gruelling tasks in a fight for her life.

“The Witch’s Circle” is a loose retelling of a Russian folktale about Baba Yaga and Vassalissa the Brave, commissioned by Odyssey Theatre in Ottawa for their new series called “The Other Path.”

Stream it on October 5, via this website: https://theotherpath.ca/listen

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Love for New Shoots!

New Shoots: Nurturing Vancouver’s Teen Writers, which I supervise at the UBC School of Creative Writing, was profiled online by ArtStarts (one of its funders). 

I absolutely love that I get to be involved in Community-Based Arts Education like this one. New Shoots has been sending creative writing grad students into Vancouver schools for 36 years!

“Students learn from their peers’ stories. Some stories may resonate. Other stories shed light on their different lived experiences.”

Link: https://artstarts.com/stories/three-ways-ubc-new-shoots-creative-program-expanding-classroom-learning

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My Love/Hate with Popular Culture

An essay I wrote about my complicated relationship with pop culture was reprinted in a new book. Event Magazine assembled selections from their “Notes on Writing” column in a book that celebrates their 50th anniversary. This collection is packed with amazing writers, like Eden Robinson, Charlotte Gill, Jen Sookfong Lee, Zoe Whittall, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Lynn Coady, and Joshua Whitehead. Purchase your own digital or print copy now!

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Ink Magazine: Writing by Vancouver Teens

I’m thrilled to be a mentor for the Vancouver Public Library’s Teen Advisory Group. The TAG is a group of teen writers who write together and select the writing that will be published in the VPL’s annual Ink Magazine. 

You can read previous issues of the mag of teen writing and art online or, if you’re in Raincouver, pop into any public library branch and borrow a copy. Ink is a wonderful snapshot of what it means to grow up in this city. So much talent and creativity between its covers!

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