DEBORAH JOY COREY is a Canadian author. Her first novel was the critically acclaimed Losing Eddie, published in 1993. Set in rural New Brunswick, Canada, Losing Eddie is a compilation of what Corey calls “rural witnessings,” things that she saw or heard growing up on a quiet, yet sometimes lawless stretch of road. Losing Eddie is narrated by a young nameless girl, remarkably capturing the voice of “the good child” who tries to make sense of the world around her. Reviewers compared it to Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, and McLeans Magazine said that it was one of the most confident debuts Canadian fiction has seen in some time. Losing Eddie won many acknowledgments both in the United States and Canada, including the WH Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award.
Her second novel The Skating Pond was published in 2003. While still reflecting Corey’s piercing style, The Skating Pond is distinct from Losing Eddie. Nearly supernatural in reach, The Skating Pond is a treasure-house of emotion: the narrator, Elizabeth, is a headstrong, half-wild girl whose story, set on the rough coast of Maine, is hewn from family tragedy and intense sexual passion. Richard Russo said, “The Skating Pond is starkly beautiful, in both its emotional and physical terrain. Deborah Joy Corey is a magical writer and her new novel burrows deep under the skin.” The respected Maine critic and publisher John Cole wrote, “The description of a lobsterman’s day is as close to poetry as most of us will ever get. For this is an ode to our coast as well as a tale of wounded hearts.” The Skating Pond won The Elle Magazine Lettres Readers Prize.
Her second novel The Skating Pond was published in 2003. While still reflecting Corey’s piercing style, The Skating Pond is distinct from Losing Eddie. Nearly supernatural in reach, The Skating Pond is a treasure-house of emotion: the narrator, Elizabeth, is a headstrong, half-wild girl whose story, set on the rough coast of Maine, is hewn from family tragedy and intense sexual passion. Richard Russo said, “The Skating Pond is starkly beautiful, in both its emotional and physical terrain. Deborah Joy Corey is a magical writer and her new novel burrows deep under the skin.” The respected Maine critic and publisher John Cole wrote, “The description of a lobsterman’s day is as close to poetry as most of us will ever get. For this is an ode to our coast as well as a tale of wounded hearts.” The Skating Pond won The Elle Magazine Lettres Readers Prize.
A recipient of a number of awards and grants, Corey has also published many essays and short stories in literary magazines. Much of her work has been recorded for radio, and she is the recipient of a NPR Selected Shorts Prize.
Deborah Joy Corey was first prompted to write after reading a tattered copy of Joyce Carol Oates short stories entitled The Wheel Of Love. Recently married to a Bostonian, and waiting on her green card, Corey found a new kinship in reading southern writers. Shortly thereafter she had her first story, Sister, published in The Agni Review, followed by the story, Drivin’, in Ploughshares: Fiction Discoveries. Not long after, she founded the “Thursday Nighters,” with Andre Dubus II, a literary salon that would give rise to many now successful authors.
Corey considers Andre Dubus II to be amongst her first mentors, alongside Alistair MacLeod and Elizabeth Hardwick. Corey worked first with Dubus, who mentored her in the early stages of her writing. Later, the Canadian novelist Alistair MacLeod discovered and published a handful of Corey’s short stories in The Windsor Review, which he edited. The two would go on to do literary events together.
In the mid 90’s Corey moved from Boston to Castine, Maine with her husband to raise their young family. It was at this time that she met Elizabeth Hardwick, who became an involved mentor and dear friend. It was Hardwick who encouraged Corey to expand her short story The Skating Pond into a novel. A strong advocate for mentorships, Corey now mentors many young writers herself.
A family illness forced Corey to take a hiatus from her writing, but in June 2017, her spiritual memoir, Settling Twice was published. The Canadian poet, Patrick Lane wrote, “Settling Twice is a book of quiet reflection, of wistful regard, where revelations of a family offer us the whole life of a remarkable woman. It is a book to be grateful for.” The writer Lee Smith wrote, “Deborah Joy Corey puts a whole universe on the head of a pin as she considers a woman’s many roles---mother, lover, wife, daughter, and sibling---and explores the loaded themes in creativity, sexuality, and spirituality in the harsh and beautiful world of coastal Maine. God is in these pages, which is something different and very damn interesting, in my opinion.”
In 2019, Corey founded Blue Angel, a nonprofit that delivers healthy food to local Maine families. The forthcoming anthology, Breaking Bread—Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family grew from Corey's desire for there to be a broader conversation about hunger in Maine. A portion of proceeds from Breaking Bread will support Blue Angel’s mission.
Corey lives with her husband in Castine, Maine, and returns to New Brunswick regularly. They have two daughters.
Deborah Joy Corey was first prompted to write after reading a tattered copy of Joyce Carol Oates short stories entitled The Wheel Of Love. Recently married to a Bostonian, and waiting on her green card, Corey found a new kinship in reading southern writers. Shortly thereafter she had her first story, Sister, published in The Agni Review, followed by the story, Drivin’, in Ploughshares: Fiction Discoveries. Not long after, she founded the “Thursday Nighters,” with Andre Dubus II, a literary salon that would give rise to many now successful authors.
Corey considers Andre Dubus II to be amongst her first mentors, alongside Alistair MacLeod and Elizabeth Hardwick. Corey worked first with Dubus, who mentored her in the early stages of her writing. Later, the Canadian novelist Alistair MacLeod discovered and published a handful of Corey’s short stories in The Windsor Review, which he edited. The two would go on to do literary events together.
In the mid 90’s Corey moved from Boston to Castine, Maine with her husband to raise their young family. It was at this time that she met Elizabeth Hardwick, who became an involved mentor and dear friend. It was Hardwick who encouraged Corey to expand her short story The Skating Pond into a novel. A strong advocate for mentorships, Corey now mentors many young writers herself.
A family illness forced Corey to take a hiatus from her writing, but in June 2017, her spiritual memoir, Settling Twice was published. The Canadian poet, Patrick Lane wrote, “Settling Twice is a book of quiet reflection, of wistful regard, where revelations of a family offer us the whole life of a remarkable woman. It is a book to be grateful for.” The writer Lee Smith wrote, “Deborah Joy Corey puts a whole universe on the head of a pin as she considers a woman’s many roles---mother, lover, wife, daughter, and sibling---and explores the loaded themes in creativity, sexuality, and spirituality in the harsh and beautiful world of coastal Maine. God is in these pages, which is something different and very damn interesting, in my opinion.”
In 2019, Corey founded Blue Angel, a nonprofit that delivers healthy food to local Maine families. The forthcoming anthology, Breaking Bread—Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family grew from Corey's desire for there to be a broader conversation about hunger in Maine. A portion of proceeds from Breaking Bread will support Blue Angel’s mission.
Corey lives with her husband in Castine, Maine, and returns to New Brunswick regularly. They have two daughters.
Prizes and Nominations
SmithBooks/Books in Canada Best First Novel Award
Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize/Symphony Space
David Adams Richard’s Prize for Fiction
Best 100 Novels of the Nineties/McFarland & Company
“Elle’s Lettres” Readers’ Prize
Finalist: 2018 Maine Literary Awards
Anthology Editor
BREAKING BREAD: Essays from New England in Food, Hunger, And Family, Beacon Press, 2022
Memoir
Settling Twice, Islandport, 2018
Novels
The Skating Pond, Putnam USA and Knopf Canada, 2004, Trade paper 2004
Losing Eddie, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1993, Trade paper 1994
Essays
Everyone Loves A Good Cook, Breading Bread
Fiddleheads, Portland Press Herald
A Shack of One’s Own, The Writer’s Magazine
Vigil,Toronto Globe and Mail
R.H. Nicholson,Telegraph Journal
Pony,Third Coast
Settling Twice, A Place Called Maine
Conversion, Image Magazine
Relations, 1968/Ruminate
The Writing Shack, Maine Boats, Harbor and Home
Seafood Shacks, Maine Boats, Harbors and Home
American Food Writing: An Anthology with Molly O’Neil
Short Story Publications (* = #)
The Agni Review
Ploughshares Magazine
Story Quarterly ***
Image Magazine ******
Quarry Magazine
The Carolina Quarterly
The Crescent Review
Fiction Quarterly **
Mademoiselle Magazine
New Letters Quarterly **
Yankee Magazine **
Grain
The Windsor Review ***
Christianity & the Arts
Southern Reader
Press
Ruminate
Third Coast Magazine
Reprints
Best Stories from New Writers
Three Genres of Fiction/Stephen Minot
What If? Anne Bernays and Pam Painter
The Northcote Anthology of Short Stories
Maritime Voices (Twentieth Century Stories by Women)
Ready-To-Tell-Tales/Holt and Mooney
Bearing the Mystery (Best of Image Magazine)
Running the Whale’s Back (Canadian stories of faith and doubt)
Radio
Selected Shorts Symphony Space, NPR
Losing Eddie (Drama), C.B.C. Radio
WERU Radio: Notes, Pony, A Porch In Maine, Relations
Teaching and Judging
Workshop Leader: Oneself: Knowing Through Memoir
M.F.A. Program, Seattle Pacific University
Writing Counselor, Camp Sunshine
Canadian National Magazine Awards
Appointments
Board Member, Northeast Historic Films
Board Member, Image Magazine
Collections
Literary papers acquired by University of New Brunswick
SmithBooks/Books in Canada Best First Novel Award
Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize/Symphony Space
David Adams Richard’s Prize for Fiction
Best 100 Novels of the Nineties/McFarland & Company
“Elle’s Lettres” Readers’ Prize
Finalist: 2018 Maine Literary Awards
Anthology Editor
BREAKING BREAD: Essays from New England in Food, Hunger, And Family, Beacon Press, 2022
Memoir
Settling Twice, Islandport, 2018
Novels
The Skating Pond, Putnam USA and Knopf Canada, 2004, Trade paper 2004
Losing Eddie, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1993, Trade paper 1994
Essays
Everyone Loves A Good Cook, Breading Bread
Fiddleheads, Portland Press Herald
A Shack of One’s Own, The Writer’s Magazine
Vigil,Toronto Globe and Mail
R.H. Nicholson,Telegraph Journal
Pony,Third Coast
Settling Twice, A Place Called Maine
Conversion, Image Magazine
Relations, 1968/Ruminate
The Writing Shack, Maine Boats, Harbor and Home
Seafood Shacks, Maine Boats, Harbors and Home
American Food Writing: An Anthology with Molly O’Neil
Short Story Publications (* = #)
The Agni Review
Ploughshares Magazine
Story Quarterly ***
Image Magazine ******
Quarry Magazine
The Carolina Quarterly
The Crescent Review
Fiction Quarterly **
Mademoiselle Magazine
New Letters Quarterly **
Yankee Magazine **
Grain
The Windsor Review ***
Christianity & the Arts
Southern Reader
Press
Ruminate
Third Coast Magazine
Reprints
Best Stories from New Writers
Three Genres of Fiction/Stephen Minot
What If? Anne Bernays and Pam Painter
The Northcote Anthology of Short Stories
Maritime Voices (Twentieth Century Stories by Women)
Ready-To-Tell-Tales/Holt and Mooney
Bearing the Mystery (Best of Image Magazine)
Running the Whale’s Back (Canadian stories of faith and doubt)
Radio
Selected Shorts Symphony Space, NPR
Losing Eddie (Drama), C.B.C. Radio
WERU Radio: Notes, Pony, A Porch In Maine, Relations
Teaching and Judging
Workshop Leader: Oneself: Knowing Through Memoir
M.F.A. Program, Seattle Pacific University
Writing Counselor, Camp Sunshine
Canadian National Magazine Awards
Appointments
Board Member, Northeast Historic Films
Board Member, Image Magazine
Collections
Literary papers acquired by University of New Brunswick