Johanna Skibsrud

Who is Johanna Skibsrud?

Johanna Shively Skibsrud is a Canadian writer, whose debut novel The Sentimentalists won the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

She has also published two books of poetry, Late Nights with Wild Cowboys in 2008 and I Do Not Think That I Could Love a Human Being in 2010. Late Nights with Wild Cowboys was a shortlisted nominee for the Gerald Lampert Award, and I Do Not Think That I Could Love a Human Beingwas a shortlisted nominee for the Atlantic Poetry Prize. In spring 2011, The Sentimentalists was published in the United States by W. W. Norton & Company. The book has been translated, or is currently being translated, into five languages.

Skibsrud's first collection of short stories, This Will Be Difficult to Explain, and Other Stories, was first published in September 2011 by Hamish Hamilton Canada, with US and UK editions of the book appearing in spring 2012.

Skibsrud is a 2005 Master of Arts graduate from Concordia University's creative writing program; A version of The Sentimentalists was first written for her thesis. She completed her Ph.D. in English Literature at the Université de Montréal in spring 2012 and currently holds a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona.