Biography
Photo: Gasper Tringale
Catherine Bush was born and raised in Toronto, the daughter of a physician and a museum volunteer, and lived there until the age of 18, when she moved to the US to study at Yale University. After completing a degree in Comparative Literature, including an undergraduate thesis on Amazons in 16th century literature, she moved to New York City. For five years in the mid-1980's, she wrote about dance and performance, freelanced for a running magazine, ghost-authored a romance novel about anthropomorphic bears, ran a successful reading series and lived on the Lower East Side. After spending a fellowship year at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, she returned to Toronto. From 1997-99, she taught Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal, and in 2001 was a visiting writer at the University of Florida. She has also taught at the Humber School for Writers and in the University of Guelph's MFA programme. She has been Writer-in-Residence at McMaster University, the University of New Brunswick and the University of Alberta. She is currently on the faculty of UBC's low-residency Creative Writing MFA. Her nonfiction has appeared in numerous publications including the Globe and Mail and The New York Times Magazine.
Minus Time (1993), her first novel, was published by HarperCollins in Canada, Hyperion in the U.S. and Serpent's Tail in the U.K. It was shortlisted for the SmithBooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the City of Toronto Book Award.
Her second novel, The Rules of Engagement (2000), was published by HarperCollins in Canada, FSG in the U.S. and Het Spectrum in Holland, and in French by Editions Triptyche. Also shortlisted for the City of Toronto Book Award, it was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book and a Best Book of the Year by the LA Times and the Globe and Mail. It has been optioned for film by producer Julia Keatley and is available as an audiobook from Goose Lane.
Catherine Bush's third novel, Claire's Head (2004) is published by McClelland & Stewart in Canada. Shortlisted for the Trillium Award, it was also chosen as a Best Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail, and has been released in a revised paperback edition. It is forthcoming in Portuguese from Ulliseia and has been optioned for film by Susan Tolusso.
Catherine Bush lives in Toronto and is working on a new novel.