Brent van Staalduinen is an award-winning novelist and story writer from Hamilton, Ontario, and the author of the novels UNTHINKABLE, NOTHING BUT LIFE, BOY, and SAINTS, UNEXPECTED, as well as the short story collection CUT ROAD.
He has been nominated for a White Pine Award, won the Kerry Schooley Book Award and Bristol Short Story Prize, and has also won and been shortlisted for a number of other awards.
A former army medic and high school English teacher, Brent now teaches writing to university students and spends too much time watching the beautiful game.
He’s also the creator and co-host of Rejected Central, a podcast which seeks to elevate the rejection experience.
How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?
I credit much of my writing success to the intensity of the program, which allowed me to focus my energy and time, produce a lot of work, and develop a stable writing routine.
The community aspect of the program was also extremely rewarding. I was exposed to a wide range of wonderful writers, both faculty, staff, and students, many of whom I’m fortunate to now call my friends.
What works have you published?
- UNTHINKABLE: a thriller
- CUT ROAD: stories
- NOTHING BUT LIFE: a novel
- BOY: a novel
- SAINTS, UNEXPECTED: a novel
What are your most recent awards?
- The ReLit Award (shortlist) for CUT ROAD
- The White Pine Award (nominated) for NOTHING BUT LIFE
- The Kerry Schooley Book Award for BOY
- The Bristol Short Story Prize for “A Week on the Water”
- The Fiddlehead Best Short Fiction Prize
- The Lush Triumphant Literary Award
- The Writer Magazine’s “Our Darkest Hours” Prize
- The Hamilton Public Library Freda Waldon Award for Fiction
- The Alvin A. Lee Award for Creative Non-Fiction
- The Short Works Prize
Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention?
- The Writers Union of Canada
- The LitLive Reading Series (committee member)