Emily
Urquhart
Emily Urquhart is an author and journalist with a doctorate in folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her work has appeared in Longreads, Guernica, and The Walrus, among other publications, and has won a National Magazine Award and an Alberta Magazine Award. Her first book, Beyond the Pale: Folklore, Family, and the Mystery of Our Hidden Genes, was shortlisted for the Kobo First Book Prize and the BC National Award for Canadian Nonfiction. The Age of Creativity: Art, Memory, My Father and Me was listed as a top book of 2020 by CBC, NOW Magazine, and Quill & Quire. Urquhart is an editor for The New Quarterly and lives in Kitchener, Ontario.
Award History
Jury Citation
Emily Urquhart’s collection of essays about folklore, storytelling, and wonder weaves its own magic as it draws the reader deep into the heart of imagination and possibility. From a haunting childhood encounter to a deeply moving exploration of dementia, Ordinary Wonder Tales delights in the knowledge that the world can be both real and imagined. As we read, we discover that no trauma in a person’s life ever sets them fully apart. Rather, human tragedies are endlessly absorbed and transformed by the wonder tales we share to bring us back to the fullness of life.
