Ruth DyckFehderau (pronounced Dyke-FAY-der-ow) spends most of her time writing literary fiction and non-fiction. She lives in Edmonton where she sometimes teaches Creative Writing and English Lit at the University of Alberta. She holds degrees from Universities of Alberta (’95, ’01) and Winnipeg (’91). She has lived in many places, including Eeyou Istchee (a remote Cree territory in Northern Quebec), Bangladesh, France, Italy, Poland, Kenya, and South Africa, and has travelled widely. She does quite a bit of public speaking, has published many short works in literary journals and anthologies, and has received awards for writing, for teaching, and for activism. Her work has been translated into Northern East Cree, Southern East Cree, Ojibwe, French, and Chinese. Ruth is hearing-impaired.
Ruth has been teaching English Lit and Creative Writing at universities since the mid-90s.
She can speak/has spoken to large and small groups about
● any aspect of prose writing craft (fiction, nonfiction, or scholarly)
● life writing with Indigenous groups/storytellers
● writing the lives of women living in insecurity
● writing and activism (feminist, lgbt2q+, human rights)
● writing the stories of others/writing from privilege
● narrative medicine; writing and health/illness or trauma
● accessible/inclusive book design
● various aspects of literature, including discussions of individual stories and plays. Esp Canadian Lit, Women's Lit, Queer Lit, Children's/YA Lit, Global Indigenous Literatures.
Ruth has done many workshops in
● aspects of craft (constructive feedback, character development, avoiding tropes, punctuation and meaning, scrubbing out wordiness/jargon, crafting setting, travel writing, and more).
● activism and writing
● narrative medicine; health/illness or trauma and writing
● writing with marginalized people
