Wayne Grady is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for adults and young readers. He is also a Governor General’s Award-winning translator, journalist, editor, and creative writing instructor. His debut novel, Emancipation Day, won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Other awards include four Science in Society Awards, the Governor General’s Award for English Translation, and the National Outdoor Book Award.

His latest title, Pandexicon: How the Language of the Pandemic Defined Our New Cultural Reality investigates the words and phrases that arose, or evolved, during the pandemic. From “uptick” and “pivot,” to “quarantini” and “covexit,” Wayne argues that, through this new vocabulary, we became more able to adapt to change, to domesticate it in a sense, and to reduce our fears. “This is so much more than a lexicon or dictionary,” says author David Waltner-Toews, “Grady has given us a travelogue documenting our journey through the rough seas of the pandemic, examining the words we have used to talk about the contradictory cross-currents of jokes, opinions, laboratory data, heart-breaking personal anecdotes, and political rants.”

Wayne lives in Kingston, Ontario, with his wife, novelist Merilyn Simonds.

Wayne’s appearance is supported by Author Patrons Justin Connidis and Julia McArthure.

Appearing in: WR1. Writing Memoir, and 8. Viral Reflections: Vocab and Culture in the New Normal