Picture of Jeanette Lynes

Jeanette Lynes M.A. (York), M.F.A. (University of Southern Maine), Ph.D. (York)

Professor of English and Director, MFA in Writing

Faculty Member in English
Program Head of MFA in Writing
Faculty Member in Interdisciplinary Centre for Culture and Creativity
Faculty Member in MFA in Writing

Office
Arts 408

Research Area(s)

  • Canadian literature
  • Creative writing
  • Atlantic Canadian regionalism
  • The works of L. M. Montgomery and Wayne Johnston

About me


Jeanette Lynes holds a Ph.D. from York University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of three novels, most recently, The Apothecary’s Garden (HarperCollins Canada) which remained on the Toronto Star’s Canadian Fiction Bestsellers’ list for seven weeks in 2022. The Apothecary’s Garden was also shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards: Book of the Year and City of Saskatoon Book Award. Jeanette’s second, The Small Things that End the World (Coteau, 2018) won the 2019 Fiction Award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Jeanette’s first novel, The Factory Voice (Coteau, 2009) was long-listed for The Scotia Bank Giller Prize and a ReLit Award. The novel was also podcast on CBC Radio. Jeanette is also the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently, Bedlam Cowslip: The John Clare Poems (Wolsak and Wynn/Buckrider Books, 2016); this poetry collection won the 2016 Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award. Jeanette’s personal essay, “Bat Reign” won the 2109 Constance Rooke Creative Non-Fiction Prize sponsored by The Malahat Review. Her poem, “1979” won Ninth Letter’s ekphrastic poetry contest, and was published in Ninth Letter. Her poetry also recently appeared in Hamilton Arts & Letters.

In addition to her essays on “Literature in Canada: Emergent Fiction” in The University of Toronto Quarterly, published in 2022 and 2023, Jeanette has also published scholarly articles on Canadian regionalism, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Wayne Johnston, and Atlantic-Canadian regionalism (co-authored with Herb Wyile). Her historical scholarly publications include an essay on women workers in World War II in Framing Our Past: Constructing Canadian Women’s History in the Twentieth Century (McGill-Queen’s University Press). Jeanette edited a volume of M. Travis Lane’s poetry for the Wilfrid Laurier Poetry series (WLU University Press) and co-edited a book on the love letters of Canadian poets (Goose Lane Editions) with David Eso.

During fall 2017 Jeanette was a Visiting Scholar at Bard Graduate Center in New York City and in spring 2018, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. She has also been a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University and the University of Washington.

She is currently at work on her fourth novel and an essay on creative writing pedagogy for a Routledge publication.



 

Artistic Works

 

Jeanette Lynes' seventh book of poetry, Bedlam Cowslip: The John Clare Poems is forthcoming in 2015 from Wolsak and

Wynn's Buckrider Books Imprint. Where The Nights Are Twice As Long: Canadian Poets' Love Letters, co-edited with Dave Eso, is forthcoming from Goose Lane Editions in 2015. This anthology includes over 100 Canadian poets. 

Jeanette Lynes' monograph, "Travis Lane, Ecopoet," is forthcoming from Frog Hollow Press (Victoria, BC). 

Research

Creative writing culture feminist theory gender poetry