Contact - Heather Birrell

Pages-contact

floatandscurry

BORN, a novel, coming Spring 2025 from Coach House Books.

Had a fab time road tripping it with Kerry Clare f

Had a fab time road tripping it with Kerry Clare for Canadian Independent Bookstore Day! Met up at Flying Books on College Street in Toronto then made our way to Blue Heron Books in Uxbridge. THANK YOU booksellers. Independent bookstores are the coolest – community hubs, promoters of the local, portals to the fantastical or far away. It is enduringly thrilling to see my books on their shelves.

#cibd2026
#independentbookstore
#buylocal
#buycanadian
#booksellersrock

Getting super gussied up is not totally in my comf

Getting super gussied up is not totally in my comfort zone. I got married at City Hall in a cowl neck sweater. But you know who would convince me to don some glad rags? The Toronto Public Library, that's who!

Last night I was a guest author at the BIBLIOBASH fundraising event at the Toronto Reference Library and it was glitzy and overstimulating in the best possible way. Plus, the focus this year was on services for youth, a subject near and dear to me.

I was grateful for the company of Shani Mootoo, Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, and Ann Choi, to the lovely organizers, my gracious table mates, and to all those who chose to spend their fortunes to help keep libraries accessible to all.

#bibliobash2026
#puttinontheritz
#puttinontheglitz
#librariesforall
#torontopubliclibrary

What an absolute honour it was to offer this comme

What an absolute honour it was to offer this commentary on Jaime Forsythe's exquisite long poem Yield. Seek it out!

Jaime Forsythe understands that (im)mortality lives on the laundry line, that what is tiny and short-lived is nonetheless consequential and noteworthy, and that caring for the earth and its creatures requires a noticing limned with love. In this series of brief, exquisite couplets the poet articulates both the sublime and banal elements of new motherhood, showing us that our drive for survival doesn't always end in sleep or catharsis. Here, the borders between body and brain, land and sea, and clinical and visceral, are erased and redrawn with vigilance and deep care. This sometimes perilous, often gentle attunement to the other acts as an antidote to the skittering consciousness of our moment, a deep balm of attention that insists “I matter, but I don’t.” For those who mother, and for those who were once mothered, Yield should be required reading.

1. “Elegy plus comedy, she says, is the only wa

1.

“Elegy plus comedy, she says, is the only way to express how we live now. And just because something isn’t funny in real life doesn’t mean it can’t be written about as if it were. Funny might even be the best way to write about it.”

– Sigrid Nunez, The Vulnerables

Thank you Ontario Arts Council and book*hug press for supporting my poem-writing. (Trying for funny. Sitting with the sad and the true.)

2.

I really dig this pen. I don’t actually drive in real life. But I love that this pen is called the Dr!ver!

I did a reading in beautiful Halifax and took no p

I did a reading in beautiful Halifax and took no photos of the event itself, which is how I know it was a good one. Such a warm and human gathering at the Trident cafe (@tridentbouldwr) , organized by Kings Co-op Books (@kingscoopbookstore). Jaime Forsythe (@jaimemforsythe) and Nanci Lee were excellent co-readers and pre-reading pub companions – and Lachie too!

Also present during this – my first east coast outing! – was my eldest, who has decided Dal is the place for her! Here's us happily playing tourist.

Ho ho Halifax, you ain't seen the last of us!

1. Citadel Hill – Clock Tower

2. Here.

3. Born! Spotted at Bookmark Books

4. Henry Hicks Building, Dalhousie – Lego

5. Henry Hicks Building, Dalhousie – IRL

6. Art Gallery of Nova Scotia – exterior

7. Maqtukwek (Humber River) 2019, Applique beadwork of Mi’kmaqplace names on commercially tanned and dyed rabbit fur by Meagan Musseau

8. Untitled (Portrait) c. 1920s by Mollie Bell McKay

9. Maud Lewis' Painted House, continuous process, 1940s-1960s

10. Halifax Waterfront Clocktower

11. H and M

12. Word.

#halifaxhappy
#proudmumtolerantdaughter
#halifaxbookstores
#dalhousie
#artgalleryofnovascotia

Trying my best to celebrate art and abundance when

Trying my best to celebrate art and abundance when it comes my way despite the world’s fuckery. In the last few days I have donned a live chinchilla hat and a snecklace, had some beautiful conversations with students and fellow educators, switched from boots to sneakers, attended a book launch that included Bridget Jones (!) courtesy Kerry Clare, and marveled – as ever – at the genius of Ronnie Burkett and his bawdy, mesmerizing, tender-hearted marionettes.

#listentoyoungpeople
#listentoanimals
#listentopuppets
#supportartists
#makeartnotwar

Load More Follow on Instagram

Born A Novel by Heather Birrell

Born

Float and Scurry

Float And Scurry

Mad Hope

Mad Hope

iknow-200

I know you are but what am I?