Literary Profile

After over two decades in molecular genetics research--where her most valuable discovery was that she was learning more and more about less and less--McGill University-educated Montrealer Beverly Akerman left "bench work" to become a freelance medical and creative writer.

Her short fiction has appeared in Canada, the U.S. and cyberspace--in The Antigonish Review, carte blanche, Descant, Fog City Review, The Nashwaak Review, Red Wheelbarrow, r.kv.r.y quarterly, and Rio Grande Review (Erotica edition). With her tenth and eleventh stories in press--at The Dalhousie Review and The Nashwaak Review--she is seeking a publisher for her debut collection of short fiction. She is a winner of the Fog City Writers Short Story Contest and has twice been short-listed for The Writers’ Union of Canada Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers.

In 2008, Ms. Akerman:

- was a finalist in Freefall Magazine's Prose Contest,
- came second for the Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize,
- was an honourable mention for the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick's David Adams Richards Prize for an unpublished short fiction collection, and
- won a Fellowship to attend Summer Fishtrap, an Oregon writers' conference, where she worked with Pulitzer Prize finalist and Kiriyama Prize winner Luis Urrea.

She has twice attended The Kenyon Review Fiction Workshop, in 2007 working with novelist Brad Kessler, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Yaddo Rome Prize, and the Whiting Writers Award, and in 2008 with Nancy Zafris, series editor for the Flannery O’Connor Award and former fiction editor of The Kenyon Review.

Ms. Akerman's nonfiction and academic articles have appeared in Maclean's, The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The National Post,The Montreal Gazette, The Chronicle-Herald, and The Daily Gleaner--among other newspapers and magazines--as well as on CBC Radio One, and in many other lay publications and learned journals.

Ms. Akerman now keeps in shape by wrestling with her first novel, which she will be working on this spring at The Banff Centre for the Arts. She hopes it will be a coming-of-age story that takes place through the years of The Quiet Revolution and The October Crisis (but she isn't making any promises, having recently realized her novel has a life of its own). Ms. Akerman also blogs as "The Gun Control Yenta."


Awards

2008 Finalist, Freefall Magazine Prose Contest (Alberta)

2008 Second Prize, Sheldon Currie Fiction Contest (Nova Scotia)

2008 Honourable Mention, David Adams Richards Prize (New Brunswick)

2008 Summer Fishtrap Fellowship (OR, USA)

2007 Finalist, The Writers' Union of Canada Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers

2007 First Prize, Fog City Writers Short Story Contest (CA, USA)

2006 Honourable Mention, Juniper Creek Short Story Competition (NV, USA)

2005 Finalist, The Writers' Union of Canada Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers

Professional & Volunteer Affiliations


Blue Metropolis Foundation, Canadian Writers Society, English Language Arts Network, Professional Writers Association of Canada, Quebec Writers' Federation, Writers' Federation of New Brunswick