Email:
c/o Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia
Julie Vandervoort writes creative non-fiction and memoir. She has worked with mentors Isabel Huggan (Humber School for Writers), Carol Bly and Philip Lopate (Vermont Studio Centre, creative non-fiction intensive) and David Carpenter (Sage Hill Writing Experience, advanced fiction program). She produced a piece called "Moving from Coping to Creating" at a national law conference and presented at the 2003 Canadian Conference of the Arts as part of the program "The Creativity Gap: How the Arts Inspire an Innovative Society". In 2009, her essay "Measures" was chosen as a keynote presentation at the conference Imagining Amsterdam: Visions and Revisions. Julie has given many public readings across Canada and at PalabrArte in Mexico, served on grants juries, on the board of the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia, and as associate fiction editor of The Antigonish Review. She has worked extensively in human rights law and as an environmental activist and singer with the international Gaia Project. This project coordinated the production of a double CD in 2003 (O Beautiful Gaia: Love Songs to Earth) and a 2007 CD of music inspired by the Earth Charter (My Heart is Moved).
- Tell the Driver: A Biography of Elinor F.E. Black, M.D., University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg, 1992.
- Winner of the Manitoba Historical Society prize for Best Scholarly Book.
- Reviewed in sixteen Canadian journals and newspapers and one U.S. journal.
- "The Debit Slips", Grain Magazine, Saskatoon, 2002.
- Winner of the Long Grain of Truth creative non-fiction contest.
- "People Who Know Who They Are", Geist Magazine, Vancouver, 2004.
- Winner in the Geist Postcard Story Contest.
- "Counting Out Loud", PRISM international, Vancouver, 2005.
- Grand Prize Winner of the PRISM international Literary Nonfiction Contest.
- "Gabriela's Brush", BRICK, A Literary Journal, Toronto, 2007.
- "Postcards from a Bicycle Tour", Punoqon Anthology, Halifax, 2007.
- "Sewing Cabinet", Geist Magazine, Vancouver, 2009.
- "A Bicycle Cameo", Geist Magazine, Vancouver, 2010.
- "Revealing insights...well written and very readable. A significant contribution to the history of women in medicine in Canada" - Canadian Medical Association Journal
- "With the skill of the author and the power of the material, this book reads like a novel; the epilogue is exquisite...I plan to give her book to my mother, my daughter and my former classmates," - Labour/Le Travail
- "The book deserves a wide readership: well-written, using an abundance of rich personal sources and placed in an informed context [...] Vandervoort helps us to understand some of the twists and complications of women and feminism [...] a splendid biography of a riveting personality." - Resources for Feminist Research
- "This excellent biography explores the professional and personal worlds of an extraordinary woman [...] encompasses the story of women's reproductive health care in the 20th century [...] Vandervoort has told it vividly, with warmth and intelligence." - Herizons
- "An inspiring and sometimes emotional read [...] a fascinating subject, a skillful, understanding biographer, and a competent publisher make it a pleasure to read and a model for other biographers to emulate." - University of Manitoba Journal
- "I suspect that many readers will, like myself, find themselves in tears...Vandervoort relates with kindness and sympathy and a fine sense of the telling detail." - The Beaver: Exploring Canada's History
- ndervoort has been able to produce a detailed, nuanced, well-researched, and footnoted biograpy which explores not only the accomplishments, but the conflicts and struggles of this outstanding woman." - Canadian Bulletin of Medical History
