Member Profile

Alan Cumyn was born in Ottawa, and studied at Royal Roads Military College and Queen's University before earning an M.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature at the University of Windsor. He has lived across Canada and in China and Indonesia, and worked variously as a geologist's assistant, group home manager, tai chi instructor, English teacher, program officer in international development, human rights researcher and freelance writer. Cumyn's fiction for adults focuses on personal and political relations, often in a cross-cultural context, while his fiction for children and young adults explores the often humorous struggles of the inner world. He has been writer in residence most recently at Mount Royal University in Calgary and at Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon, and has taught creative writing through the Banff Centre and the Humber School of Writing. He now lives in Ottawa with his wife and teaches part-time through the Vermont College of Fine Arts. A former chair of PEN Canada's Writers-in-Prison Committee, he is also a past Chair of the The Writers' Union of Canada.