Debra Anderson (she/her) is a queer, Jewish, crip, and mad, award-winning author who was the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s prestigious Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers. Debra holds an Honours B.A. Degree in Creative Writing and Women’s Studies from York University and is based in Tkaranto/Toronto.
Her writing has been widely anthologized in Gender Ever After (Bold Strokes Books, S.B. Milne) – Upcoming, America Does Not Exist: an anthology of protection spells for the queer & trans community (Beyond the Veil Press, Sage Herrin) – Upcoming, Glimpses of Us (JMS Books – A Small Queer Press) – Upcoming, Friday the Flirteenth: A Monsterotica Zine (Little Ghosts Books) – Upcoming, Girl Fever: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex for Lesbians (Cleis Press, Sacchi Green), Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme (Arsenal Pulp Press, Ivan E. Coyote & Zena Sharman), Geeks, Misfits and Outlaws (McGilligan Books, Zoe Whittall), Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity (Anna Camilleri & Chloe Brushwood Rose), and Bent On Writing: Contemporary Queer Tales (Women’s Press, Elizabeth Ruth).
Her novel, Code White was on the syllabus for Queer Lit & Media 551 at San Francisco State University (2024) and LGBT US HIST 45 at City College of San Francisco (2024) where she was a Guest Author. Code White was also on the syllabus for WMST 1510 – ‘Sex, Gender & Popular Culture’ at York University (2014 & 2015) where she was a guest lecturer. She was also a guest lecturer at York University’s Canadian Writers in Person Reading Series (AP/CLTR 1953 6.0A) where her book was on the syllabus (2009), She was the guest lecturer for World Pride 2014 at Monarch Park Collegiate (Toronto Public Library – Danforth/Coxwell Branch, was also a Guest Author for World Pride 2014 (TPL – Parkdale Branch), and was a Guest Author at UBC in a reading and panel discussion (2006).
Debra has widely performed at literary festivals, book launches, and other events. She has read at Blazing Femme in Naked Heart – An LGBTQ Festival of Words (2018). She appeared at IN:VERSE in Naked Heart – An LGBTQ Festival of Words (2015), World Pride & Nuit Rose at Cunning Linguists (Propeller Centre for the Arts, 2014), POETRIX – a Get Lit World Pride Program (Glad Day Bookshop, 2014), PROUD VOICES – Dirty.Sexy.Queer (Pride Toronto, 2013), Querying the Page Panel as part of the Thought Exchange Program (Toronto Public Library – Palmerston Branch, 2013), Glad Day Bookstore’s Pride Program’s, Fiction with Friction (2012), book launch for Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), Brockton Writers Series (2011), book launch for Lambda Literary Award Winning Amber Dawn’s, Sub Rosa (This Ain’t the Rosedale Library, 2010), the Trigger Festival (2010), Word on the Street (Toronto, 2009), book launch for Lambda Literary Award Winner, All the Pretty Girls/Chandra Mayor (The Toronto Women’s Bookstore, 2008), and the book launch of Geeks Misfits, and Outlaws/Zoe Whittall (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre) as well as performing at Proud Voices Reading Series (Pride Toronto, 2009).
She has facilitated numerous Creative Writing Workshops for the Toronto Public Library (Branches – Albert Campbell District Branch, S. Walter Stewart, Beaches, St. James Town, Pape, & High Park), Creative Writing – Let it Flow, Workman Arts/Art Cart/CAMH (Three Courses, 2022), a Creative Writing Workshop Series at the Toronto Public Library Fairview Branch for all ages, at Naked Heart – An LGBTQ Festival of Words (2018 & 2015), for World Pride 2014, to the Toronto Wordsmiths (Toronto Public Library – Parkdale Branch), at Queer Writes (Sexual & Gender Diversity Office & The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, U of T, 2014), Unity Conference (OISE, 2013), Word on the Street (2007), and at Pink Ink (Supporting Our Youth (SOY), 2007).
Code White was supported by the Ontario Arts Council Writers’ Reserve Program (2004) and the work of her current untitled work-in-progress has been supported by both the Ontario Arts Council Writers’ Works in Progress Grant (2011) and the Ontario Arts Council Writers’ Reserve Program (2011 & 2012).
Her out of town reading highlights include performing at the tenth anniversary of the Thin Air — Winnipeg International Writers Festival (2006), The Robson Reading Series (Vancouver, 2006), Festival Voix d’Ameriques (Montreal, 2006) and the Durtygurls Reading Series (Ottawa, 2006).
To book Debra to give a lecture, artist talk,or to facilitate uniquely tailored Creative Writing Workshops for groups of any size, or to schedule her for festival events, readings, or book club visits, please email.
Debra was also the organizer and promoter of Get Your Lit Out, a reading series that was based in Toronto that promoted local female authors. She organizes and promotes additional local literary events. To inquire about Debra organizing an event, please email.
PRAISE FOR CODE WHITE & PUBLICATIONS
Getting Schooled: Code White is on the Syllabus at York University
— Happy to announce that Code White is on the syllabus for WMST 1510 – “Sex, Gender and Popular Culture,” taught by Allyson Mitchell, Professor at York University (2014 & 2015). I was invited as a Guest Lecturer (Feb. 2014 & March 2015)
Glad Day Bookshop – Shop Online & Support LGBT Bookstores
— Code White is chosen as one of Glad Day Bookshop’s Staff Picks! (2013)
Autostraddle (July 13, 2012)
Review of Anthology — Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity, ed. Chloe Brushwood Rose & Anna Camilleri
“Read a F*cking Book: “Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity”—Autostraddle
Autostraddle
“Among my favorite pieces is “fading femme” by Debra Anderson, a poem that describes the institutionalized femme stripped of her trappings: “I’m losing my colors / cloaked in the faded blue / of hospital property pjs / almost forget the femme in me.”
One aspect of the poem that stands out specifically is the interesting and important perspective Anderson offers on makeup: “this ritualized mask-making / not to hide behind / but to put forth;” that the aim of a femme’s makeup is not to cover up the face, but to create the face. It’s a form of performance art.”—Autostraddle
Xtra! (February 9, 2012)
Article
Xtra!
“The book is both tragically hilarious and unabashedly sexy.”—Xtra!
Writers’ Trust of Canada
Dayne Ogilvie Prize Winner (2009)
“Debra Anderson is a courageous writer, unafraid to explore and expose the deeper chasms in life. Combined with enviable craft, a big heart, a sense of humour and mischief, and that larger vision that makes a great writer, she holds her reader with a firm, delightful grip.”—Dayne Ogilvie Prize Jury
For more info & prize history on the Dayne Ogilvie Prize, please visit the Writers’ Trust of Canada.
Capital Xtra! (Summer 2009 – Ottawa)
Interview
Capital Xtra!
“Code White is a very sexy book…”—Capital Xtra!
York University Alumni News
Profile (May 2009)
“Alumna Debra Anderson Decodes Mental Health in Debut Novel”
“Written in the form of journal entries, Code White explores the experience of Alex, a woman who is locked inside a mental institution. Reading her journal gives you get an unfiltered view of Alex’s thoughts and feelings, which are often sharply humorous…”— Chris Cornish
Herizons (Winter 2007)
Review
“The work of a writer who takes her issues as seriously as she takes her fun. Code White is a book that meets your eye, has a good handshake, and looks killer in a pair of fishnets.” —Herizons
Shameless Magazine (Summer 2006)
Review
“Code White provides a unique story rife with butches and femmes, kindly and cruel nurses, and love and friendships lost and found.” —Shameless Magazine
Swerve Magazine (June 2006 Issue – Winnipeg)
Review and Interview Feature
“In Code White, Anderson delivers a lot of humour and hope.” —Swerve Magazine
Broken Pencil (Issue 31)
Review
“A passionate and realistic no-nonsense portrait of femme culture in the unstable world of modern mental health, Code White is the kind of book that those ‘chick lit’ books have nightmares about.” —Broken Pencil
ffwd (March 16, 2006 – Calgary)
Interview
“Machinations of a psych ward — Debra Anderson’s novel Code White an intimate look at mental illness.” —ffwd
Calgary Herald (March 11, 2006 – Calgary)
Review
“Two Tales of Down-and-out Young Women.” —Calgary Herald
TRADE: Queer Things (Winter 2006 Issue – Toronto)
Cover, Feature Interview
“Debra Anderson Fans the Flames of Fame” —Trade: Queer Things
The Hour (February 9, 2006 – Montreal)
Review
“Worlds Apart — Two Valentine’s Releases Resurrect Feminist Critiques of Future World Orders.” —The Hour
“Anderson evokes the tension and tedium of trying to maintain impossible but gorgeous desires while regaining the strength and grounding to realize them. As much a novel of trauma and recovery as a critique of the conditions we create for those in recovery, Code White poses important questions about the ongoing pathologization of queerness in psychiatric practice and about how we know what wellness, integrity and sanity are in the first place.” —The Hour
Ottawa Xpress (Volume 13, Issue 6 – Ottawa)
“Save Your Cash For the Brash.” —Ottawa Express
Highlighting Durtygurls Reading Series
NOW Magazine (November 2005 – Toronto)
Review
TRADE: Queer Things (Summer 2004 Issue – Toronto)
Interview
“Why Can’t I Be You? —Trade: Queer Things
PRESS PHOTOS
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