Richard Scarsbrook is the Toronto-based author of the multi-award-short-listed novels Cheeseburger Subversive and Featherless Bipeds, the ReLit Award nominated short story collection Destiny's Telescope, as well as many other published short stories and poems. Two new novels are forthcoming: The Monkeyface Chronicles and The Indifference League.
Scarsbrook grew up in a tiny country place called Olinda (near Leamington, Ontario), surrounded by orchards, fields, and the buzz of tractors and dirt bikes. After graduating from Kingsville Distict High School, he earned an Honours BA in History from the University of Western Ontario, where he played rock and roll and grew his hair too long, then he moved on to the University of Ottawa, where he earned a Bachelor of Education degree.
He lived and taught in Petrolia, Ontario for nearly a decade, where he acted, directed, and served as a member of the board of directors for the Petrolia Community Theatre, as well as playing the drums and singing in a rock band called The Know. He also began publishing his first short stories and poems at this time.
Scarsbrook now makes his home in Toronto, where he teaches creative writing courses at The Humber School of Writers and George Brown College (Click HERE for Scarsbrook's current course offerings). He also jams with a rock band called The Nerve.
Scarsbrook's fiction and poetry have been published widely in literary magazines, anthologies and journals. His funny and poignant novel Cheeseburger Subversive was published by Thistledown Press in May, 2003, to positive reviews and great reader response. The rock 'n' roll adventures of Dak Sifter continue in Featherless Bipeds, published by Thistledown Press in April 2006. Destiny's Telescope, a collection of Richard Scarsbrook's prize-winning short stories, was published by Turnstone Press in May 2006. (Reviews of all three books can be read here.)
Richard has won many prizes and awards , including the 2002 Lawrence House Centre for the Arts Short Story Competition, the 2001 New Orphic Short Story Competition, the 2001 Scarborough Arts Council Poetry Competition, the 1998 Hinterland Award for Prose, the 1997 Cranberry Tree Press Poetry Chapbook Competition.
His books have been short-listed for several major prizes: Cheeseburger Subversive (Thistledown Press, 2003) for the Canadian Library Association's 2004 Canadian Young Adult Book of the Year Award , as well as for the Ontario Library Association's 2005 White Pine Award and the BC-based Stellar Book Award. Featherless Bipeds was short-listed for the 2007 CLA YA Book of the Year Award, and Destiny's Telescope was long-listed for the 2007 ReLit Award.
Richard Scarsbrook's biography is listed in the 2007 edition of the Canadian Who's Who, "the largest and most authoritative publication of its kind in Canada, offering instant access to nearly fourteen thousand notable Canadians in all walks of life".
Scarsbrook is available for school, library, and other appearances. He has over fifteen years teaching experience the the elementary, high school and college levels, and can present on a variety of writing-related topics to groups of varying size and age. Funding assistance is available through The Writers' Union of Canada Writers in the Schools Program, as well as throught The Canada Council for the Arts Readings Program. Email to make a booking!
Richard Scarsbrook's literary agent is Margaret Hart of the HSW Literary Agency.
Scarsbrook's official Blod can be viewed HERE.
