Kathryn Mockler

Biography

Kathryn grew up in London, Ontario and studied creative writing and English Literature at Concordia University in Montreal. She completed her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of British Columbia and later attended Canadian Film Centre's Writers' Lab where she wrote two award-winning short films for the NBC/Universal Short Dramatic Film Program.

Prior to joining the Department of Writing in 2020, Kathryn taught screenwriting, poetry, and experimental writing at Western University. She has also taught at the University of Windsor, Fanshawe College, and OCAD University.

On the editing side, Kathryn published the online literary journal The Rusty Toque from 2011-2017 and was the Canada Editor of Joyland Magazine from 2013-2020. From 2019-2021 she published an online literary site, Watch Your Head, which published writing and art about climate justice and the climate crisis. She runs a literary newsletter called Send My Love to Anyone about all things writing (and sometimes art and film).

Selected professional & creative achievements

Kathryn Mockler is a publisher, editor, fiction writer, poet, screenwriter, and experimental filmmaker.

She is the author of the story collection Anecdotes (Book*hug Press, 2023) which won the 2024 Victoria Butler Book Prize and was a finalist for the 2024 Trillium Book Award, 2023 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, 2024 Fred Kerner Award, and 2024 VMI Besty Warland Between Genres Award. She co-edited the print anthology Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis (Coach House Books, 2020). She has written five books of poetry and co-wrote a poetry chapbook with Gary Barwin Me Then You Then Me Then (knife | fork | book, 2020).

Her films and experimental videos have screened at over 80 festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Festival, Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, and EMAF. And they have won awards at Worldfest, Yorkton, The Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival, and Euroshorts and have been broadcast on TMN, Movieola, and Bravo. She is a TIFF Talent Lab Alumnus, a Praxis Screenwriting Fellow, and won the San Francisco Film Society Screenwriting Fellowship.

She received the Angela Armitt Award for Excellence in Teaching at Western University.

Selected publications

• Anecdotes, Short Fiction, Book*hug, 2023
• Watch Your Head: Writers & Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis, Co-Editor, Anthology, Coach House Books, 2020
• Me Then You Then Me Then, a chapbook written in collaboration with Gary Barwin, knife | fork | book, 2020
• Some Theories, a collaboration with artist David Poolman, Stories, Poems Plays, Drawings, 2017
• The Purpose Pitch, Mansfield Press, Poetry, 2015
• The Saddest Place on Earth, DC Books, Poetry, 2012
• Onion Man, Tightrope Books, Poetry, 2011

Selected filmography

• Do You Know What’s Great?, 1:17 minutes, Experimental, Writer/Director/Producer, 2024
• This Isn't a Conversation, 6:09 minutes, Experimental, Writer/Director/Producer, 2020
• It's Going to be a Rough Tomorrow, 4:37 minutes, Experimental, Writer/Director/Producer, 2020
• Tornado, 2:08 minutes, Experimental, Writer/Director/Producer, 2020
• The Old Ways, 15 minutes, 16mm, Co-writer
• Umbrella, Bravo!Fact, 5 minutes, HD, Writer/Co-producer
• The Reluctant Narrator, 11 minutes, DV, Writer/Co-director/Co-producer
• Skinheads, 16 minutes, 35 mm, Colour, Canadian Film Centre & NBC/Universal, Writer
• Spoonfed, 15 minutes, 35 mm, Colour, Canadian Film Centre & NBC/Universal, Writer