A longtime freelance writer with a zoology degree and a background that includes teaching high school in Africa, Frances Backhouse decided to tackle an MFA for both the immediate learning and future teaching opportunities it presented. “I wanted to be stimulated in new ways, to take my writing in new directions,” she explains, “and one of the appeals of the writing program here is that it’s multi-genre—so I’d be studying with students and professors who work in other genres, which I really enjoyed.”  Backhouse focused her MFA in Writing on the Canadian national icon, the beaver, “I see the beaver as something where biology and history intersect,” Backhouse explains. “But I didn’t want to write a standard natural history of the beaver; I wanted to get into it more as an iconic animal—so I’m looking at the beaver as a history maker, a landscape shaper and a national symbol.”

Read about her research in The Ring.