Aislinn Hunter is an award-winning poet, novelist and writing teacher. She’s the author of seven highly acclaimed books: ‘Into the Early Hours,’ ‘The Possible Past,’ and ‘Linger, Still’ (poetry), ‘Stay’ and ‘The World Before Us’ (novels), ‘What’s Left Us’ (a story collection) and a book of non-essays on material culture and writing called ‘A Peepshow with Views of the Interior: Paratexts’.
Her work has been adapted into music, dance, art and film forms including ‘Stay’ – a feature film based on the novel of the same name (directed by Wiebke von Carolsfeld and starring Taylor Schilling and Aidan Quinn) – which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014, a song called ‘Romance of the Field’ written and sung by Veda Hille (and inspired by ‘The World Before Us’), and a dance performance choreographed by Anusha Fernando which premiered at the Chan Centre in 2016.
Aislinn identifies as a writer but she also works in academic contexts. She has undergraduate degrees in the history of art and creative writing (UVic BFA), graduate degrees in creative writing (UBC MFA) and writing and cultural politics (UEdinburgh MSc), and a PhD in English Literature (UEdinburgh) where she focused on material culture theory and the writer’s house/museum.
In 2018 Aislinn served as a Canadian War Artist working with Canadian and NATO forces undertaking live chemical, biological and radioactive weapons training. Her war artist video installation ‘A Word and A Body Are Not The Same’ will premiere at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa in February 2020.
Aislinn teaches part-time in the creative writing program at KPU and in the Writer’s Studio program at SFU. She has also served as a writer-in-residence at universities in Canada, England, and Australia.
‘The Certainties’ – a novel about bearing witness and imaginative acts – is due out in May 2020 with Knopf, Random House.
