Four years after first publishing this for Write Magazine, this seems timely… I’ve taken up a post as Regional Representative for Alberta/Northwest Territories/Nunavut, for The Writers Union of Canada. The challenges writers and all our industry partners face have only grown over these four years. I’ll be keeping all that in mind, seeking ways to serve our community of writers and access the many brilliant insights of ‘the Writing Half’ that enable us to keep on, despite it all.
We all know the two stereotypes of how writers live: starving in a Dickensian garret, or swanning about in a mansion, courted by the power elites.
However, in Canada, in 2018, how do real writers really live? What’s ‘home’ for us? What follows is an extremely non-exhaustive exploration: I asked some working writers. Their answers are presented via pen names, to preserve an aura of glamour.
Emma is a mid-career, well-regarded literary author. She lives in the GTA, Canada’s bustling cultural heartland. Emma lives with family. She cannot afford a mortgage, but has no desire, she says, to own a home. She does dream of making enough to rent a studio apartment in a happening part of town, where pedestrian and public transit options would serve all her needs. To afford a cat would be the apex of her housing goals.
For now, she counts herself lucky to have a…
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Prairiepomes 
Congratulations AMS! You will be great in your role with them! 🎉
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