Kessler, Deirdre

Contact Information:

29 Victory Avenue,

Charlottetown, PE C1A 5E9

902-892-6334

kessler@upei.ca

About Deirdre:

Deirdre Kessler is a Charlottetown-based writer, teacher, and broadcaster. She is the author of five children’s novels and five picture books, including the award-winning Brupp Rides Again and Lobster in My Pocket. She is the author of many works of nonfiction, including a number of educational texts. Her work for CBC Radio includes hour-long documentaries of CBC Radio’s Ideas and The Arts Tonight; as well, she was one of the poets commissioned to write a poem for the 2003 CBC Radio Poetry Face-Off. Her collaboration with PEI Poet Laureate John Smith, the long poem, “I am the Road,” was broadcast on CBC Radio in summer 2002.

Deirdre was one of the guest speakers at the National Library of Canada’s international symposium on children’s literature in Ottawa, June 2003: “The Fun of Reading,” and her paper is posted on the NLC/BNC website.

Deirdre Kessler teaches children’s literature, creative writing, and composition with the University of Prince Edward Island English Department. Currently she is shopping a number of new children’s and adult manuscripts and working on a collection of poetry. Deirdre Kessler’s Writing ON the Wall poem can be found at http://www.confederationcentre.com/wotw5.asp.

Publications:

Fiction:

Brupp Rides Again (Indigo Press, 1995), originally publ. in 1992 by Ragweed Press; Bigfoot Sabotage (Ragweed, 1991); Lena and the Whale (Nimbus Publishing, 2002), originally publ. in 1991 by Ragweed Press; Spike Chiseltooth (Ragweed, 1989), illustrated by P. John Burden; Home for Christmas (Pottersfield Press, 1989); Brupp in the Land of Snow (Ragweed, 1989), ; Lobster in my Pocket (Nimbus Publishing, 2002), illustrated by Brenda Jones, originally publ. in 1987 by Ragweed Press; Brupp on the Other Side (Ragweed, 1986); The Private Adventures of Brupp (Ragweed, 1983).

Non-Fiction:

A Prince Edward Island Christmas: Nowadays and Long Ago (Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2003), with photographs by Wayne Barrett & Anne MacKay; Green Gables: Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Favourite Places (Halifax: Formac Publishing Company, 2001), text by with photographs by Martin Caird; A Century on Spring Street: Wanda Lefurgey Wyatt of Summerside, Prince Edward Island, 1895-1998(Indigo Press, 1999); Winner: PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation Writing Award, 2000; Discover Canada: Prince Edward Island (Toronto: Grolier Ltd., 1993; revised edition, 1996), part of 14-volume series on provinces & territories of Canada, co-published with Children’s Press (Chicago) 50-volume series on U.S.; Découverte Canada: Île-du-Prince-Édouard (Grolier, French edition of Discover Canada book, 1998); Atlantic Canada in the Global Community (Toronto: Prentice Hall Ginn Breakwater, 1998), co-authored with Crewe, McLean, Butt, et al., grade 9 textbook for Atlantic provinces; The Energy Story & Activity Book, a Science Culture Canada project cosponsored by the PEI Departments of Education and Energy & Forestry (Charlottetown: Queen’s Printer, 1993), illustrated by P.John Burden; Energy Technologies Workbook, co-authored with Copthorne Macdonald (Charlottetown: Dept.of Energy & Forestry, 1990; The Bend in the Road: The Life and Work of L.M. Montgomery, CD-ROM (Charlottetown, L.M. Montgomery Institute, 2000) Project manager & principal writer; this CD-ROM won six international, national, and provincial awards.