Debra
Mattson
Debra Mattson is an author from Newcastle, Ontario with a Master of Arts in creative writing from the University of Windsor. She was longlisted in 2023 for Pulp Literature’s Raven Short Story Contest for “The Things You Take with You” and was shortlisted in 1996 for the Eye Wuz Here anthology for “Sweaty Palms.” A version of her literary nonfiction manuscript Carry Me Gently was shortlisted for the 2001 Maclean Hunter Endowment Award. In July 2022, her essay “At long last I can breathe deeply, despite my cystic fibrosis” was published in The Globe and Mail.
Program History
Citation
“With compassion and a dancer’s skill, Debra Mattson’s nonfiction makes us look deeply at the world and even more deeply at ourselves. Her work is both playful and profound — sliding between a child’s wonder at the world, to growing confusion with the pain and struggle of her body, to an adult’s wistful recollection of the past in layered, difficult complexity. Mattson’s eye is gentle but unflinching, locating hurt both external and internal and seeking not to turn away from what is difficult but instead to uncover all its shadowed secrets. This is bold writing from a relentlessly brave writer, one that we are lucky enough to call our own.”—Amanda Leduc, 2024 Nonfiction Mentor