Fiction
Services:
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Bio
Oonya Kempadoo is an award-winning multidisciplinary writer-director with over 20 years of experience in narrative development in literature, with some years devoted to multimedia. She is a British, Guyanese and Grenadian citizen who lives in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, Canada. Author of four novels and critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic, her work has been translated into six languages, longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, selected by Oprah Winfrey’s Summer Reads, and she was named a “Great Talent for the 21st Century” by Orange Prize judges. Oonya is a US Fulbright alumni, has taught creative writing in the USA, led workshops in the Caribbean, at the Quebec Writers Federation, and has served on several award juries including the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards (USA & Canada), and Canada Council for the Arts. Her latest novel Naniki (Dundurn, 2024) won the Guyana Prize for Literature, was longlisted for the Carol Shield’s Prize, is a Governor General’s Literary Award Finalist for Fiction, and a CBC Best Book.
Services Offered
From manuscript evaluation, to defining voice in short stories, from ghostwriting to finding the best form and plan around your idea or theme, I love collaborating to find what best serves your needs and what, ultimately, serves the story. Based on your needs or work, we would discuss a process and agreement that can include evaluation and/or editorial feedback and virtual/in-person consultation over a fixed period. Using reflection, affirmation and defiance of the traditional structures and grammar that sometimes bind us, I pay much attention to the authenticity of language and the importance of observation. I enjoy bringing an international perspective to literary projects and to working with others to shape and support great stories. I also offer a docu-memoir and legacy story service, and can work with an elder or family, to create a print-ready/printed story or book that becomes an intergenerational treasure.
Special Interests
Novel, memoir/legacy stories, creative nonfiction, ghostwriting, autobiography, speculative and climate fiction.
