About Trevor
Trevor Corkum's debut novel The World After Us is forthcoming with Knopf Canada. An award-winning writer, educator, and scholar, he has facilitated workshops and lectured across Canada and around the world. His fiction, essays, journalism and reviews have appeared in Canada's leading periodicals, including the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Walrus and others. Trevor’s story “Lost Boys” was shortlisted for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In Canada, his writing has been recognized with nominations for the Journey Prize, a National Magazine Award for Fiction, a Western Magazine Award for Personal Journalism, the CBC Short Story Prize, and the CBC Nonfiction Prize. Trevor was the 2017 Writer-in-Residence at Lester B. Pearson United World College and a 2017 Writer-in-Residence on the Canada C3 expedition. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC, and an MA and PhD in Adult Education from the University of Toronto, where his doctoral research explored the intersections of migration, storytelling, place, and belonging. With Suzette Mayr and Dionne Brand, he served on the 2022 jury for the Blue Metropolis Violet Prize, to recognize a body of work by a Canadian LGBTQ writer, and has served as a juror for the Writers' Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize. He has received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, Innovation PEI, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Access Copyright Canada (through the Marian Hebbs Grant program) and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. After living in Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, and Europe, Trevor now lives in Epekwitk (Prince Edward Island), where he is a co-proprietor of The Hideout, a rural riverside property which offers retreats and self-directed residencies for Canadian and international writers.
Trevor is represented by Dean Cooke at CookeMcDermid Agency.
One Life Writing
Through One Life Writing, Trevor leads personalized writing workshops, retreats, and classes across Canada and around the globe. A respected educator, he frequently collaborates with other practitioners to facilitate events that deepen our full experience of being alive, and which honour the unique histories and perspectives that inform our lives. Learn more about the values that guide One Life.
press/Interviews/EPHEMERA
Interview with Matt Rainnie - Commonwealth Short Story Prize (CBC Mainstreet)
Summer People provides a current reading of PEI’s social issues (Canada Council for the Arts)
Need something to read when you isolate? (CBC Books)
PEI’s election is next week. It could be historic. (Big Story Podcast, Rogers Media)
Award-winning author offers one-day retreat focussed on creative, craft and focus (Journal-Pioneer)
Award-winning writer says self-confidence is the key ingredient to success (Journal-Pioneer)
Weekend of writing by the sea (The Guardian)
Victoria Literary Festival opens (The Guardian)
Writing and yoga part of Victoria Literary Festival (Journal-Pioneer)
In conversation with Kara Stanton (The Malahat Review)
The Oddments Tray: Chioke L'Anson reads from Dar a Luz
Trevor Corkum's firsthand view of the Canada C3 expedition (Toronto Star)
Into the dark vortex of time (The Malahat Review)
awards & recognition
Awarded a Marian Hebbs Research Grant (Access Copyright Foundation) for Emily and Me (2023)
Lost Boys shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2023)
Awarded a PEI Professional Artist Grant for Blooming Point (2022)
Saving Face longlisted for the CBC Short Story Award (2019)
Awarded an Explore and Create Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts for Blooming Point (2019)
Awarded a Toronto Arts Council Grant (Level Two) for The Happiness Project (2018)
Served as Writer-in-Residence for the Victoria (PEI) Literary Festival (2018)
Awarded an Ontario Arts Council Recommender Grant for This is an Act of Love (2018)
Commissioned by the Banff Centre of the Arts as one of ten artists to produce an original fable for its limited edition Fables for the 21st Century anthology, forthcoming with the Banff Centre Press (2017)
Selected as one of 15 Canadian writers to serve as writer-in-residence for the Canada C3 sea expedition, a Canada 150 legacy project (2017)
Selected as the Lester B. Pearson United World College inaugural alumni-in-residence (2017)
Emily and Me longlisted for the CBC Short Story Award (2017)
Dar a Luz won Honourable Mention for Fiction at the National Magazine Awards (2016)
Thursday night karaoke nominated by Little Fiction for the Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize (2016), a Pushcart Prize (2016), and a Sundress Best of the Net Award (2015)
1974 longlisted for the CBC Creative Nonfiction Award (2015)
27,000 Breaths nominated by Big Truths for a Pushcart Prize (2016) and a Sundress Best of the Net Award (2016). It was longlisted for the CBC Creative Nonfiction Award (2015)
Eileen received Third Place in the Short Grain Fiction Contest (2015)
Articles of Faith nominated for a National Magazine Award, Personal Journalism (2016). It was also a finalist for the PRISM international Creative Non-Fiction Award (2015) and The Malahat Review Open Season Awards, Creative Non-Fiction (2014)
Day of the Dead won an Honourable Mention in the Prairie Fire Fiction Contest (2015)
Esperanza named A Joyland Most Read Story (2014) and nominated by Joyland for the Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize (2015)
Efren’s Place adapted for stage reading by Guys in Disguise/Workshop West Theatre (Edmonton) (2014)
Coconut Dreams longlisted for the CBC Short Story Award (2014)
In Memoriam nominated by Little Fiction for a Pushcart Prize (2014) and the Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize (2014)
The Moon in Scorpio won a Manitoba Magazine Awards (“Maggies”) for Best Editorial Feature/Creative Non-Fiction Piece (2014). It was also a finalist for a Western Magazine Awards, Human Experience (2014), was nominated by Prairie Fire for a National Magazine Award, Personal Journalism (2014), won the Prairie Fire Creative Non-Fiction Award (2013) and was a finalist for the Constance Rooke Non-Fiction Award (2012)
5’9, 135, 6c, br bl nominated by Plenitude for the Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize (2013) was a finalist, for the Matrix Litpop Fiction Contest (2011), and was adapted for stage reading by Workshop West Theatre (Edmonton) for Exposure Festival of the Arts (2010)
You Were Loved appeared in Journey Prize Stories 24 (2012), and was nominated by The Malahat Review for a National Magazine Award for Fiction (2012) and a Western Magazine Award for Fiction (2012)
Sushi for the Homeless nominated by Grain for the Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize (2012)
Notes Toward a Film About My Childhood won Second Prize in the Prairie Fire Fiction Contest (2009)
Letters to Andersonville won Honourable Mention in the Event Non-Fiction Contest (2008)
GRANTS
Marian Hebbs Research Grant, Access Copyright Canada (2023)
Prince Edward Island Professional Artist Grant (2022)
Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create Grant (2021)
SSHRC, Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship (2019-2022)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2019-2020)* *declined
Ontario Arts Council Literary Creation - Works for Publication (2019)
Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create Grant (2019)
Toronto Arts Council, Writer’s Grant - Level Two (2018)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2018-2019)
Ontario Arts Council, Recommender Grant (2018)
Banff Centre, Barbara and Walter McCormick Artist Award (2017)
Ontario Arts Council, Writers’ Reserve (2017)
Canada Council for the Arts, Professional Writers Grant (2016)
Ontario Arts Council, Writers’ Work in Progress (2016)
SSHRC, Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (2015-2016)
Ontario Arts Council, Writers’ Reserve (2015)
Canada Council for the Arts, Professional Writers Grant (2012)
OTHER
Jury Member, PEI Arts Awards (2023)
Judge, Alfred G. Bailey Prize (2022)
Jury Member, Blue Metropolis Violet Prize (2021)
Jury Member, Writers Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize (2020)
Guest Co-Editor, Malahat Review (2018)
Writer-in-Residence, Victoria Literary Festival (2018)
Invited Author, TDSB Authors’ Day (2018)
Writer-in-Residence, Canada C3 Expedition (2017)
Writer-in-Residence, Lester B. Pearson College (2017)
Guest Editor, Plenitude – Issue 4 (2014)