This Guy
I don’t always have the word “ABOUT” scrawled across my face, but when I do you better believe I’m going to tell you a bit about myself.
I am a writer and illustrator in Hamilton, Ontario.
My picture book, ARTHUR GARBER THE HARBOR BARBER, published by Firefly Books, is in stores and available online now!
The Canadian Review of Materials says Arthur Garber the Harbor Barber is a “ humourous (and sometimes silly) [and] entertaining readaloud.”
I hold an undergraduate degree from the University of Waterloo and a Master’s from the University of Toronto. For a time, I did PhD work on American Literature at McMaster University.
In addition to scholarly research, I have studied writing at the Humber School for Writers and published fiction in Canada and the US.
When not writing or illustrating, I can be found baking, running, or canoeing.
SOME PAST EXPERIENCE
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES
Public Library Staff
Executive Search Consultant in the Innovation Sector
Founder and Chief Creative of Freytag Frank: Organizational Storytelling and Creative Commiunications Consultancy
Corporate Onboarding and Engagement Leadership
Copy Editing and Ghostwriting
Publisher’s Representative
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Senior Teaching Assistant, Department of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont., 2009 - 2014
Senior Tutor Assignments: American Literature and Longer Genres
Other Assignments: Canadian Literature; Shorter Genres; the Fairytale; American Literature; Biblical Tradition in Literature
Literature Blogger, verbaamericana.wordpress.com, 2011 – 2014
Teaching Assistant, Arts Department, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ont., 2007 – 2008
Assignments: Laughter & Tears, Tragedy & Comedy; the Hero’s Journey: Myth & Archetype
Teaching Assistant, English Department, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., 2006 – 2007
Assignment: Narrative
HONOURS & AWARDS
2015 City of Hamilton Arts Awards Recipient for Emerging Artist in the field of Writing
2014 GSA Keith Leppmann Teaching Assistant Excellence Award Nominee in English
2012-2013 CUPE Local 3906 TA/RA Award for the Faculty of the Humanities at McMaster University, in recognition of excellence in teaching
2009 Pushcart Prize Nominee
2006 University of Toronto Creative Writing Scholarship
2004 Jean-Marc Iammetteo Memorial Scholarship Winner, Humber School for Writers
PUBLICATIONS
Arthur Garber the Harbor Barber (picture book author and illustrator). Firefly Books Inc. Toronto, Ontario: September 2019
“American Laconic: Nescience and Realism in Richard Ford’s ‘Optimists’.” Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, Volume 4 Number 1, 2014. Edge Hill University. Lancashire, England
“Sleep, Hold.” The Hell Gate Review. New York, New York: November 2009. Nominated for the 2009 Pushcart Prize
“White Knuckles.” The New Manic. Waterloo, Ontario: January 2006
PRESENTATIONS & LECTURES
March 2017. Lunch ‘n Learn, Innovation Factory, Hamilton, Ont. Presentation: “Corporate Storytelling for Innovative Organizations.”
Public readings at the Hamilton Public Library Locke Street branch, organized by Kathleen May
September 2012. Northrop Frye 100: A Danubian Perspective, Karoli Gaspar Reformatus Egyetem, Budapest. Paper: “American Laconic: Studies at the Crossroads of Spare Prose, Inarticulateness, and Realism.”
September 2010. Cosmopoetics Conference, University of Durham. Paper: “Earthquakes Can’t Shake Us: Carnivals, Cruelty, and the Performance of Testimony in the Global Cosmopolitan.”
May 2010. New Narrative Conference: Narrative Arts and Visual Media, University of Toronto. Paper: “Buffalo Soldiers and Superheroes: On Superhero Race-making and the Antiracist Narrative of Captain America: Red, White & Black.”
October 2008. John Douglas Taylor Conference: The Iconography of Death, McMaster University. Paper: “Already Dead: Urbanity, Existentialism, and Death in Leonard Michaels’ ‘Murders.’”
Various Dates and Institutions. Writing Academic Papers on Literature.
October 2011. English 2H06 American Literature. McMaster University. On Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter."
October 2010. English 1A03 Shorter Genres. McMaster University. On John Barthes’s "Lost in the Funhouse."