Ruth DyckFehderau (pronounced dyke-FAY-der-ow)
— Writes things. Mostly literary fiction and literary non-fiction.
— Teaches English literature and creative writing in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta.
— Seeks out interesting writing, teaching, mentoring, and public-speaking gigs and residencies in far flung corners of the world.
Ruth DyckFehderau grew up on a farm on the Niagara Peninsula in Southern Ontario. She holds degrees from Universities of Alberta (’01 PhD, '95 MA) and Winnipeg (’91 BA). She has lived in many places, including Eeyou Istchee (a remote Cree territory in Northern Quebec), Bangladesh, France, Italy, Poland, Kenya, and South Africa, and has travelled widely. Sometimes she teaches Creative Writing and English Lit at the University of Alberta where she is an Adjunct Professor. She does quite a bit of public speaking, has published many short works in literary journals and anthologies, and has received awards for writing, for teaching, and for activism. She lives in Edmonton with her partner. She is hearing-impaired.
Ruth writes literary fiction and nonfiction. The Sweet Bloods of Eeyou Istchee: Stories of Diabetes and the James Bay Cree (2017), a book she wrote with James Bay Cree storytellers, is now in Second Edition (2020) and is being translated into Northern East Cree, Southern East Cree, Ojibwe, French, and excerpts into Chinese. She is currently working on another long commission with the James Bay Cree of Northern Quebec: the first volume of Finding Our Way Home: Residential School Recovery Stories of the James Bay Cree should be out in late 2022. Ruth's novel I (Athena) is forthcoming with NeWest Press in 2023.
