Inaugural Reading featuring Lisa Ko and Cadence McGillicuddy

Everyone is invited to hear some of Canada’s best established and emerging writers read from their work and discuss their craft.

Presented by Writing 2520A: Write Now! Writers on Writing, the Department of English and Writing Studies, and the Creative Writers Speaker Series at Western.

Lisa Ko, Writer-in-Residence, is a writer and educator. Their novel Memory Piece (2024) was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize, the Gotham Book Prize, and the New American Voices Award, and named one of Barack Obama's favourite books of summer 2024. Ko's best-selling debut novel The Leavers (2017) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and won the PEN/Bellwether Prize. Their essays and short fiction have appeared in Best American Short Stories, McSweeney's, and The Believer. Ko has taught creative writing at the City College of New York, Indiana University, the New School, Queens College, the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, the One Story Summer Writers Conference, Kundiman, and in many community settings.

Cadence McGillicuddy, Student Writer-in-Residence, is completing a Bachelor of Science with a Major in Computer Science and a Minor in Creative Writing. She writes poetry, creative non-fiction and fiction. She explores nature, relationships, and themes of identity in her writing. Her work has been published in ICONOCLAST, Occasus, and has been featured in an art installation in her hometown of Burlington, Ontario. When she is not writing, she can be found lifting at the Rec Centre, turning the page of yet another fantasy novel, or sipping chamomile tea.