Member Profile

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Photo: Orest Skrypuch 2003

Marsha didn't learn to read until she was nine. At ten, she taught herself how to read with Dicken's Oliver Twist. After high school, Marsha earned an honours degree in English at UWO. In 1978, she took a job with an industrial supplier, becoming the first woman in Canada to be an industrial sales rep. She married Orest Skrypuch in 1981, and in 1982, she returned to UWO and got her Master of Library Science degree. She worked as a librarian for Agriculture Canada until 1984 when her son Neil was born. Marsha invented a washable nursing pad that was so successful it was sold across Canada and in Europe for over a decade. In 1996 Marsha's first book, Silver Threads was published. All of Marsha's books have one thing in common: they are the stories that people tend to brush under the carpet.
 

E-mail: marsha@calla.com
Phone number:
c/o Writers' Union of Canada

Publications

Kobzar's Children: a century of untold Ukrainian stories. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2006.
Aram's Choice. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2006.
Silver Threads. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2004.
Nobody's Child. Toronto: Dundurn, 2003.
Prisoners in the Promised Land: Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk, Spirit Lake Quebec, 1914. Scholastic (Dear Canada), 2007
Call Me Aram. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2008
Daughter of War. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2008
Enough. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2001
The Best Gifts. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1998
Silver Threads. Penguin Canada, 1996
The Hunger. Dundurn, 1999
Hope's War. Dundurn, 2001
Stolen Child. Scholastic, 2010
Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue From War. Pajama Press, 2011
Making Bombs For Hitler. Scholastic, 2012
One Step At A Time. Pajama Press, 2012

Awards

Nominated, BC Stellar Award for Nobody's Child, 2006.
Nominated, Ontario Red Maple Award for Nobody's Child, 2005.
ResourceLinks "Best of the Best 2004" in novel category for Nobody's Child, 2004.
ResourceLinks "Best of the Best 2001" in picture book category for Enough, 2001.
Silver Birch Express nomination for Aram's Choice, 2007
Resource Links Best Books for Aram's Choice, 2006
CLA Book of the Year nomination for Aram's Choice, 2007
Alberta Rocky Mountain Book Award nomination for Hope's War, 2004
Alberta Rocky Mountain Book Award nomination for Nobody's Child, 2005
Ontario Red Maple nomination for Nobody's Child, 2005
Saskatchewan Snow Willow nomination for Hope's War, 2003
Manitoba Young Readers' Choice award nomination for Hope's War, 2003
Manitoba Young Readers' Choie Honour Book for Stolen Child, 2012
SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for Stolen Child, 2011
Golden Oak nomination for Stolen Child, 2011
Diamond Willow nomination for Stolen Child, 2011
OLA Best Bet for Stolen Child, 2010
CLA Children's Book of the Year nomination for Stolen Child, 2010
Starred Best Book, Children's Book Centre for Stolen Child, 2011
Red Cedar nomination for Last Airlift, 2012
OLA Best Bets for Last Airlift, 2011
Best Book of the Year for Stolen Child, 2010
The Order of Princess Olha for body of work, 2008
Links:
Website
http://www.calla.com
Eligible for National Public Readings Program :
Yes

WITS

Presentation Description

Readings: 60 minutes: interactive reading plus how a non-reader became an author. Turning failure into success with perseverence. Students are inspired by her anecdotes.

Presentation Length:
45 to 60 min.
Genre:
YA, middle-grade novels, picture books.
Grades:
k to adult
Audience size:
negotiable
Workshop Description:

Workshops: Marsha loves helping young writers develop their own works-in-progress. Topics: writing longer fiction, self-editing, developing characters/scenes. Making great bad guys, WWI, WWII, literacy, bullying, eating disorders, multiculturalism, genocide.

Northern OAC WITS:
Yes
One session:
$400
Two sessions:
$600
Three sessions:
$850
Four sessions:
$1000
One session:
$300
Two sessions:
$500
Three sessions:
$700
Four sessions:
$850
GST:
GST applicable