© Jackie Roorda
Biography
Julie Roorda has more than twenty years experience as a professional writer and editor. She is the author of seven books, including the novel A Thousand Consolations, the Young Adult novel Wings of a Bee, three volumes of poetry, and two collections of short stories. She has edited numerous titles for literary presses, including Austin Clarke’s Where the Sun Shines Best which was nominated for both the Governor General’s Award and the Trillium Poetry Award, as well as several books that have been self-published. With Elana Wolff, she co-edited the anthology Poet to Poet: Poems written to poets and the stories that inspired them, and she was one of the founding editors of the literary journal Pagitica, serving as Poetry Editor from 1999-2004. She also served as assistant editor of the University of Toronto’s Department of Surgery newsletter The Surgical Spotlight for many years.
© Jackie Roorda
“ I find it necessary to write in a variety of genres – I would get bored if I didn’t. Different genres offer different, complementary modes of inquiry into whatever it is I am trying to understand. So I do not consider myself primarily one or the other. Writing poetry is more difficult within a given slice of time; you can’t write your way into something, following a thread, the way you can with narrative prose. With poetry you’ve got to muscle images and ideas in your head, and sometimes smash them together to figure out what’s going on. It is more strenuous and often, literally, makes my head hurt. Writing a whole novel is a much bigger endeavour, and weaving all the different threads and pieces together is ultimately just as difficult; the difference is that you can work on a novel, return to it day after day and find a flow without always having to hold everything together in your brain at once.”
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Julie Roorda
Roorda “has a knack for witty dialogue and an eye for the sharp, smart details of
friend and family dynamics. “
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Quill & Quire review of A Thousand Consolations
“Gut-bustingly funny.”
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Journey Prize Anthology Juror comments on the story
“How to Tell if Your Frog is Dead.”
“Tantalizing glimpses into other lives and places … The title story of Julie Roorda’s
sixth book made me smile: the deadpan narrator explains the difficulty of
maintaining the well-being of your pet African clawed frog and the life lessons it can
teach your child when it doesn’t get what it needs. The next story involves a shy
young man on a bus who sees an image of himself on the tablet of a woman sitting
near him; in the photo they are clearly together, yet he is certain he has never seen
her before. The one after that takes us on a Valentine’s Day Haunted Tour
through Toronto. Plus 30 more similarly unhinged stories.”
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Toronto Star review of How to Tell if Your Frog is Dead
“Clear prose and engaging, original humour make this novel accessible for a variety
of readers. The vocabulary and language are uncomplicated but poetic, and
the insight into the inner workings and daily struggles of a family dealing
with cerebral palsy is invaluable.”
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Manitoba Library Association review of Wings of a Bee
“Quirky humour and intellectual compression … [Roorda’s poems are] characterized
by a sly wit … Roorda also uses arresting imagery to bring to light what we lesser
mortals could see in the natural world if we looked more closely.”
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The Fiddlehead review of Courage Underground
"Eleventh Toe is an accomplished first book worthy of the praise found on
its back cover. Buy it; read it.”
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ARC review of Eleventh Toe
"Thank you to the author and publisher. The book was a Goodreads prize (thanks to Goodreads as well.)
Sweet story of love and loss. Thoughtful and insightful without be saccharine.
Enjoyed the Toronto locations (not too far from my home.) I also found the Theater sections quite fun. A good read for a weekend."
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Janice (On Goodreads.com)
"Roorda handles her heroine's conflicted feelings with sensitivity, and never tries to gloss over the less-than-palatable realities of her story."
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Abygail (On Goodreads.com)
"How to Tell if Your Frog is Dead: Stories whispered the old magic again, and I read the beatified words of a talented author."
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"I am so glad I had the opportunity to read How to Tell if Your Frog is Dead by Julie Roorda. The author approaches each story freshly, and incorporates humor and, at times, even a shadow of horror. The stories are clever, whether written in exchanges of dialogue or in the style of a tour guide. Now that I have read a digital copy...I want a hard copy. Amazing work, and I really enjoyed it!"
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J.D. DeHart (On Goodreads.com)
