John Woolfrey

A creative-writing school dropout, the short story John workshopped in that course won Honourable Mention in a Matrix Magazine literary contest. That was his first story published.

Thanks in part to a grant from the Canada Council, he went on to write a total of 15 that make up East of the Big Q, a connected collection of short stories depicting his coming of age and life in Montreal's Gay Village.

Several were published in various anthologies in Canada and abroad. The final story in the collection, “At the Top of the City” (Véhicule Press, Future Tense: New English Fiction from Quebec) is included in a course reading list at the Université de Montréal along with such renowned authors as Leonard Cohen, Mordecai Richler, Denys Arcand, Gabrielle Roy, Hugh MacLennan and others. Another has been translated into French by Karine Chagnon under the title "La Toussaint."