Myrna Kostash

Who is Myrna Kostash?

Myrna Kostash is a Canadian writer and journalist. She has published several non-fiction books and written for many Canadian magazines including Chatelaine.

Of Ukranian descent, she was born in Edmonton, Alberta and educated at the University of Alberta, the University of Washington, and the University of Toronto. She resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

A founding member of The Periodical Writers' Association of Canada and of the Writers' Guild of Alberta, she served as president of the WGA and as chair of The Writers' Union of Canada. She served as Alberta representative to the Board of Governors of the Canadian Conference of the Arts. She is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and PEN. She is a founding member of the Creative Nonfiction Collective, and served as its president 2006-9. She has also for several years been an executive member of the Board of Directors of the Parkland Institute, an organization dedicated to social research and located at the University of Alberta.

Kostash is the recipient of several Canada Council, Alberta Foundation for the Literary Arts and Secretary of State grants. In 1985, she was awarded a Silver citation in the National Magazine Awards and was short-listed in 1997. In 1999 she was a finalist in the Western Magazine awards. In 1988, her book, No KIdding: Inside the World of Teenage Girls, received the Alberta Culture and Writers' Guild of Alberta prizes for Best Non-Fiction. In 1994 she was awarded the same prize for her book, Bloodlines: A Journey Into Eastern Europe. In 1993 she was a participant in the Maclean-Hunter Arts Journalism Seminar, the Banff Centre for the Arts, under the direction of Alberto Manguel. In 2001, her book, The Next Canada: In Search of the Future Nation, was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. In 2006, Reading the River: A Traveller’s Companion to the North Saskatchewan was a prize winner at the Saskatchewan Book Awards.