51±¾É«

Nov. 13, 2023
For Immediate Release

Poet and spoken word performer Nasser Hussain has been chosen as 51±¾É«’s Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence for the winter 2024 term.  

Hussain is an award-winning author of four books of poetry. His 2019 book of “airport code poems,” SKY WRI TEI NGS, garnered praise from the New York Times and his most recent book, Love Language, published by Coach House Press in October 2023, will be taught as part of 51±¾É« courses during winter 2024.   

Known for his inventiveness and playful critique of language’s beauty and oddness, Hussain will offer members of the 51±¾É« community ways to connect with him to develop their own writing, including one-on-one meetings, writing workshops and class visits. Hussain has taught creative writing at Leeds Beckett University in the U.K. and served as writer-in-residence with the in 2017, as well as writer-in-residence at the University of Windsor in 2019, where he was praised for his rapport with students. More recently, Hussain served as faculty mentor at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity during winter 2023.

During his term working with students and faculty at 51±¾É«’s Waterloo and Brantford campuses, Hussain will also write his next book: the forthcoming honest sonnets, in which he will apply his talents to the traditional and ever-changing form of the sonnet.

“Nasser Hussain astonished readers with SKY WRI TEI NGS, a book that is both funny and an ingenious comment on our contemporary obsession with travel,” said Tanis MacDonald, professor in the Department of English and Film Studies and chair of the Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence Committee. “I predict that writers from across the 51±¾É« community will respond well to Nasser’s humour, openness and language play.”

As the 2024 Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence, Hussain will also deliver guest lectures, including a public talk at the end of January titled “Notes Towards a Love of Language.” Details about the event will be released in the coming weeks.

The Edna Staebler 51±¾É« Writer-in-Residence was established in 2012 through a bequest from the late Edna Staebler (1906-2006), the prolific creative non-fiction writer and author of the popular “Schmecks” series of books that celebrate the culture of Waterloo Region. The writer-in-residence position supports writers with a funded residency each winter term, as well as the development of emerging writers.

Hussain’s residency follows novelist Donna Morrissey’s successful residency during winter 2023. Previous Edna Staebler writers-in-residence and visiting writers include novelist and essayist Ali Bryan (2021), fiction writer Carrianne Leung (2020), poet and novelist Gary Barwin (2019), novelist Alison Pick (2018), creative non-fiction writer Emily Urquhart (2018), novelist Pasha Malla (2017), novelist Ashley Little (2017), playwright Drew Hayden Taylor (2016), poet Sonnet L’Abbé (2015), playwright Colleen Murphy (2014), and creative non-fiction writer Andrew Westoll (2013).