Dr. Lauren Kirshner
Biography:
Dr. Kirshner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English. Her creative work, research, and community action projects use a range of storytelling forms to examine how women experience gender, sexuality, mental health, work, and family.
Dr. Kirshner’s diverse body of published work includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, and memoir. Her coming-of-age novel, Where We Have to Go (external link) (M&S) was a finalist for the City of Toronto Book Award. Called "a very strong original debut (external link) " by the Globe and Mail and translated into Dutch and German, it also garnered Dr. Kirshner the title of "Toronto’s Best Emerging Author" from NOW magazine.
Her latest book, Sex Work in Popular Culture (external link) (UTP, 2024), delves into provocative movies, TV shows, and documentaries about sex work produced in the last decade – a period of debate and change around the meaning of sex work in North American society. From Oscar-winning films to viral YouTube videos, documentaries to hit series – many of which are made by women – the book draws on labour and feminist theory, film history, news, activism, and interviews to reveal how popular culture today is showing the world’s oldest profession in a new light.
Dr. Kirshner’s writing has also appeared in popular publications across North America, including Hazlitt (external link) , ELLE (external link) , The Malahat Review, THIS, The Globe and Mail, PRISM, and Room. Her non-fiction work, “ (PDF file) Twenty Poems about Claudia (external link) ,” on the maquiladora workers of Juarez, Mexico, appeared in the paper documentary I Live Here. One of her earliest published pieces was an interview with the late great Clash guitarist and singer Joe Strummer for NOW magazine.
Dr. Kirshner received her PhD from the Joint Program in Communication & Culture at York-Ryerson University and an MA in English in the Field of Creative Writing from the University of Toronto, where she was mentored by Margaret Atwood.
Beyond her creative work, Dr. Kirshner is a community arts leader whose acclaimed projects focus on arts for social justice. She is the Founding Director of Sister Writes (external link) , an intersectional creative writing and publishing program that strives to empower women through creative writing workshops, (external link) mentorship with acclaimed Canadian writers, public arts events (external link) , multimedia (external link) and literary magazines. Praised by The Star (external link) , CBC (external link) , and The Huffington Post in 2018, Sister Writes received an Arts Bridges Award for Remarkable Achievement in Community Arts. Dr. Kirshner’s other community arts initiatives have included an intergenerational oral history initiative, a writing program for young mothers (external link) at The June Callwood Centre, and her Young Authors Project was a finalist for the Ontario Minister’s Award for Innovation in the Arts.
In 2020, Dr. Kirshner received the Toronto Metropolitan University New Faculty Teaching Award. In 2024, she won the Faculty of Arts Dean’s Service Award.
Dr. Kirshner teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in creative writing and works closely with students on White Wall Review (external link) .
