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Rosemary
Sullivan

Rosemary Sullivan is a biographer, poet, and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. Her books include the critically acclaimed Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape, and a House in MarseilleShadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen, which won a Governor General’s Literary Award; and Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva, which won the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. Sullivan divides her time between Chile and Toronto.

Award History

2015 Winner

Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction
for Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva

Jury Citation

“Compelling figures are essential in a great biography. They need not be famous or historically significant but they do require an author to bring to life their passions, ideas, feats, and failures. Rosemary Sullivan achieves all of it with an insightful yet empathetic portrait of Svetlana Alliluyeva. Stalin’s Daughter expansively intertwines history, political intrigue, espionage, and domestic drama, yet Sullivan hones the episodes to one struggle: Alliluyeva’s attempt to escape her father’s shadow. When the “Soviet Princess” died, she was treated in the media more like a post-Cold War curiosity. Sullivan’s book delivers a fully wrought literary heroine.” – 2015 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction Jury (Stevie Cameron, Will Ferguson, and JJ Lee)

Program History

2020 Selector

Rising Stars

Selection