Shauntay Grant

Teaching

• CRWR 3010 Creative Writing: Poetry I
• CRWR 3011 Creative Writing: Poetry II
• CRWR 2002 Introduction to Creative Writing
• CRWR 3200 Spoken Word
• CRWR 3410 Writing for Children: Picture Books
  

Education

• BMus (Dalhousie University)
• BJ (University of King’s College)
• MFA (University of British Columbia)

Shauntay Grant is a poet, playwright, interdisciplinary artist and children’s author who lives and works in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). As an artist with ancestral ties to the arrival of Black Loyalists, Jamaican Maroons, and Black Refugees to Nova Scotia in the late 1700s and early 1800s, creating art that illuminates African Nova Scotian and African diasporic histories and experiences is a vital part of her research and work. A former poet laureate for the City of Halifax, she “creates artworks that are engaging and accessible, but also challenging, rigorous, and informed by deep research (The Royal Society of Canada).” A member of The Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, her other honours include a Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Writing and Publishing from the Canada Council for the Arts, a Robert Merritt Award for her stage play The Bridge, a Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award for Africville (a collaboration with illustrator Eva Campbell), and a Poet of Honour prize from the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Her books have received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Quill and Quire, and Canadian Review of Materials. Shauntay is co-founder of Erasure Art Collective, an interdisciplinary arts group committed to researching and reinterpreting archival texts using visual, poetic, and performative erasure. Her recent publications include a children's picture book with illustrator Jenin Mohammed called When I Wrap My Hair (HarperCollins, 2024), a stage play called Beyere published as part of Obsidian Theatre's 21 Black Futures anthology (Playwrights Canada Press, 2023), and her edited anthology of solo plays by Black Canadian women From The Ashes (Playwrights Canada Press, 2023). Visit her online at shauntaygrant.com.

Selected Publications (alphabetically by genre):  

Exhibitions:

Nova Scotia Profile (Pan African Heritage Museum Virtual Exhibition; curated by S. Grant) 2024

Children & YA

• "When I Wrap My Hair" , with illustrator Jenin Mohammed. New York: HarperCollins, 2024.
• "Snowy Mittens", with illustrator Candace Bradley. New York: Abrams, 2023
• "Sandy Toes", with illustrator Candace Bradley. New York: Abrams, 2023
• "My Fade Is Fresh", with illustrator Kitt Thomas. New York: Penguin, 2022.
• "Africville", with illustrator Eva Campbell and translator Josephine Watson. Moncton: Bouton d'Or Acadie, 2020.
• "My Hair is Beautiful",  Halifax: Nimbus, 2019.
• "Africville", with illustrator Eva Campbell. Toronto: Groundwood, 2018.
• "The Walking Bathroom", with illustrator Erin Bennett Banks. Halifax: Nimbus, 2017.
• "Apples and Butterflies", with illustrator Tamara Thiebaux-Heikalo. Halifax: Nimbus, 2012.
• "The City Speaks In Drums", with illustrator Susan Tooke. Halifax: Nimbus, 2010.
• "Up Home", with illustrator Susan Tooke. Halifax: Nimbus, 2008

Playwriting

• "From The Ashes: Six Solo Plays. Edited Edition", Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2023.
• "Beyere", stage play published in 21 Black Futures. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2023.
• "The Bridge." Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2021.

Poetry

• "t(her)e". Poetry In Motion. Halifax: Writers Federation of Nova Scotia, 2019.
• "will (2)."Aubade. Boularderie Island Press, 2018.
  
• "jazz fest". TOK Magazine. Toronto: Diaspora Dialogues, 2018.
• “mirror.” Contemporary Verse 2 (CV2). Winnipeg: Contemporary Verse 2 (CV2), 2016.
• “passing.” The Fieldstone Review. Saskatoon: The Fieldstone Review, 2015.
• “firsts.” Sankofa Black Heritage Collection: Firsts. Ed. Natasha Henry, Tom Henderson. Oakville: Rubicon, 2014.
• “Grandmother.” The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry. Calgary: Frontenac House, 2012.
• “t(her)e.” TOK: Writing The New City – Book IV. Toronto: Zephyr Press, 2009.

Spoken Word

• "The City Speaks In Drums". Drifts. Halifax: Narratives in Space + Time Society/MindSea Inc., 2018.
• "Say Sumthin." Halifax: Wordrhythm, 2014.
• “Home.” iLit Digital Collection. Whitby: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2012.
•  “Life Lessons. Live Ink! Online". Don Mills: Pearson Canada, 2011.

Theatre Productions"

• "Identity: A Song Cycle," a song cycle commissioned by Against The Grain Theatre and created by poet/librettist Shauntay Grant, composer Dinuk Wijeratne, and baritone Elliot Madore. The work will premiere in 2024.
• "Colonial Park", a TYA Stage-play presented by Nepture Theatre Tour. Co., 2023
• "Passing", a scene-play commissioned in 2021 by Eastern Front Theatre for its Micro Digitals Creation Project
• "Beyere", a monodrama commissioned in by Obsidian Theatre for its 21 Black Futures Project, presented in partnership with CBC Gem in February 2021.
• "KK", commissioned in 2020 by Boca Del Lupo for its touring Red Phone roject.
• "The Bridge", a three-act drama that premiered on Neptune Theatre's MainStage in 2019 (a co-production between 2b theatre and Neptune, in association with Obsidian Theatre).
• "WORD", a spoken word stage performance presented by Onelight Theatre as part of the 2016 Prismatic Arts Festival.

Art Gallery and Museum Exhibitions

• "After This" (Anna Leonowens Gallery, Creative Counter-Memoralizations: A Symposium Gathering, NSCAD University), 2022.
• "Blackout" (Erasure Art Collective performance installation at Jones Gallery Contemporary Art+ projects as part of the Atlantic Arts Symposium", 2022.
• "A Calling", a multidisciplinary work created with visual artist Tyshan Wright and commissioned for '50 Things', an interactive art adventure presented by Zuppa Theatre and the Ecology Action Centre, 2021.
• Every. Now. Then. Reframing Nationhood. (Art Gallery of Ontario exhibits multidisciplinary installation Grandmother, Teach Me – curated by Grant – as part of national group exhibition)  2017
  
• Canada: Day 1 (Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 exhibits collaborative work Abeng presented as part of national group exhibition) 2017
  
• Stitched Stories: The Family Quilts (Dalhousie Art Gallery exhibits poetry, spoken word, and family heritage quilts; curated by Grant) 2016
• Up Home (Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design exhibits text and original illustrations from the award-winning picture book) 2010
• Up Home (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia exhibits text and original illustrations from the award-winning picture book) 2009
  
• Up Home (Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia exhibits text and original illustrations from the award-winning picture book) 2009

Recognitions (Awards, Fellowships, Scholarships, Residencies)

• Finalist Blue Spruce Award (Forest of Reading, 2024)
• Inaugural Black Artist Recognition Award (Arts Nova Scotia, 2022)
• Black Artist Recognition Award (Arts Nova Scotia, 2022)
• Established Artist Recognition Award (Arts Nova Scotia, 2021)
• Robert Merritt Award for "Outstanding New Play By A Nova Scotian" (Theatre Nova Scotia, 2020)
• Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award (Canadian Children's Book Centre Book Awards, 2019)
• Finalist Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards (2019)
  
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award Finalist (Nova Scotia Masterworks Awards Foundation, 2019)
• Finalist for Governor General's Literary Award for Young People's Literature - Illustrated Books (Governor General's Literary Awards, 2018)
• Playwright-In-Residence (2b theatre company, 2016–2018)
• Berton House Writers’ Retreat Writer-In-Residence (Writers Trust of Canada, 2015-16 cohort)
• Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Writing and Publishing (Canada Council for the Arts, 2015)
• Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2014)
• Arts Graduate Research Award (University of British Columbia, 2014)
• Faculty of Arts Graduate Award (University of British Columbia, 2013)
• Finalist for Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature (Atlantic Book Awards, 2011)
• Jury Award for Outstanding Drama (Atlantic Fringe Festival, 2011)
• Finalist for Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award (2010)
• Poet of Honour Award (Spoken Word Canada, 2010)
• Best Atlantic-Published Book Award (Atlantic Book Awards, 2010)
• Sauvé Scholars Fellowship (Jeanne Sauvé Foundation, 2009-10)
• Poet Laureate of Halifax (Halifax Regional Municipality, 2009-11)