About
Melanie Dugan was born in San Francisco, and lived in Boston, Toronto, and London, England, before settling in Kingston, Ontario. She is the author of five novels: Hard White (Woodpecker Lane Press, 2024), Bee Summers (UpStart Press, 2104), Dead Beautiful (UpStart Press, 2012), Revising Romance (2004), and Sometime Daughter (Second Story Press, 2002).
She has studied writing with Leon Rooke, Keath Fraser, Kim Moritsugu, Anita Rau Badami, and Helen Humphreys and has a post-graduate degree in Creative Writing from Humber College.
She has worked in libraries, newspapers, bookstores, and publishing. She was Associate Publisher of Quarry Press, and Managing Editor of Poetry Canada Review, Quarry Magazine, and Canadian Fiction Magazine. In 2009 she was promotions director for the inaugural Kingston WritersFest.
Novels
Bee Summers, UpStart Press, May 2014
Dead Beautiful, UpStart Press, May 2012
Revising Romance, Sumach Press, May 2004
Sometime Daughter, Second Story Press, November 2002
Short Fiction
“Yellow Plums,” Kingston Whig-Standard Magazine, January 12, 1990
“Primavera,” North American Review, March 1986
“Domestic Archaeology,” Waves, vol. 19, nos. 1 & 2
Poetry
“Whirly Gig,” Branching Out, March/April 1975
Journalism (selected)
“Etherington Links City and Culture,” Kingston Whig-Standard, September 7, 2002, Kingston, Ontario.
“Maynard Reveals His Emotions Through His Art,” Kingston Whig-Standard, January 20, 2001, Kingston, Ontario.
“A User’s Guide to the Health-Care System,” Progressive Independent Community Press (PIC Press, now Independent Voice), March, 2000, Kingston, Ontario.
“Show For Anyone in Love With the Seductive Possibilities of Pigment,” Kingston Whig-Standard, February 5, 2000, Kingston, Ontario.
“Viewer Plays Important role in Exhibition,” Kingston Whig-Standard, December 4, 1999, Kingston, Ontario.
“Three Decades of Teaching Art-goers to ‘see,’ ” Queen’s Gazette, July 13, 1998, Kingston, Ontario.
Numerous feature articles for Kingston This Week, March 1998-March 1999, Kingston, Ontario.
“First Annual Breast Cancer Conference,” PIC Press, June, 1997, Kingston, Ontario.
Book reviews, Kingston Whig-Standard, December 1998-May 1991, Kingston, Ontario.
“Dreaming of a Green Christmas,” Toronto Life, November 1989, Toronto, Ontario.
“Shades of Scarlett,” Broadside, May 1985, Toronto, Ontario.
Awards & Grants
2022 Canada Council Creative Writing Grant
2020 Canada Council Creative Writing Grant
2014 Ontario Arts Council Works in Progress Grant Ontario Arts Council, National and International Residency
2011 Canada Council Creative Writing Grant
2010 Ontario Arts Council Works in Progress Grant
2004 Ontario Arts Council Writers’ Reserve Grant
2002 $1,000 Writers’ Trust of Canada Scholarship, Humber School for Writers
2000 Ontario Arts Council Writers Reserve Grant
Education
2006 Banff Writing Studio, mentors: Helen Humphreys, Anita Rau Badami
2002 Postgraduate Certificate, Creative Writing, Humber School for Writers, instructor: Kim Moritsugu
1990 University of Toronto Writers’ Workshop, instructors: Leon Rooke, Keath Fraser
1976 University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Integrated Studies — English
Bibliography
Beaudette, Mary Anne, “A Novel Approach,” Kingston Whig-Standard Companion, 12 June, 2004, p.3.
Gamache, Donna, “Sometime Daughter,” Prairie Fire Review of Books, August, 2003.
Golfmann, Noreen, “Revising Romance,” “Letters in Canada,” University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol. 75, No. 1, Winter, 2006.
Lindner, Elsbeth, “Publish and Pucker,” Globe and Mail, 11 September, 2004, Books Section, page D 18.
Melman-Clement, Deborah, “The Lives of Mothers and Daughters,” Kingston Whig-Standard Companion, 11 January 2003, Companion, pp. 3-4.
Paltzat, Theresa, “Revising Romance,” Canadian Book Review Annual, 2005.
“Revising Romance,” Midwest Book Review, Library Bookwatch, January 2005, p. 10.
Rintoul, Suzanne, “Gendered Power,” Canadian Literature, Autumn 2006, pp. 108-109.
Schmidt, Brenda, “Bee Summers,” Quill & Quire.