Stuart Ross

Stuart Ross published his first literary pamphlet on the photocopier in his dad’s office one night in 1979. Through the 1980s, he stood on Toronto’s Yonge Street wearing signs like “Writer Going To Hell: Buy My Books,” selling over 7,000 poetry and fiction chapbooks. A tireless literary press activist, he is the co-founder of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair and now a founding member of the Meet the Presses collective, Poetry Editor at Mansfield Press, and Fiction & Poetry Editor at This Magazine. Stuart has edited several small literary magazines, including Mondo Hunkamooga: A Journal of Small Press Stuff, Dwarf Puppets on Parade, Syd & Shirley, Who Torched Rancho Diablo?, Peter O’Toole: A Magazine of One-Line Poems, and, most recently HARDSCRABBLE. He is the author of two collaborative novels, two collections of stories, and nine full-length poetry books. He has also published a collection of essays, Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer (Anvil Press), and edited the anthology Surreal Estate: 13 Canadian Poets Under the Influence (The Mercury Press) and co-edited Rogue Stimulus: The Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament (Mansfield Press). Stuart has taught writing workshops across Canada and works one-on-one as a writing coach. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario. In spring 2009, Freehand Books released his first short-story collection in more than a decade, Buying Cigarettes for the Dog, to almost unanimous critical acclaim.In fall 2010, Stuart was writer-in-residence at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. In spring 2011, ECW Press released his first novel, Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew. In fall 2013, Mansfield Press released his book of collaborative poems, Our Days in Vaudeville, the first such book ever published by a Canadian poet.