Tessa McWatt is the author of six novels and two books for young people. Her fiction has been nominated for the Governor General's Award, the City of Toronto Book Awards, and the OCM Bocas Prize. Her most recent novel is Higher Ed (Scribe/Random House Canada), and she is the co-editor, along with Dionne Brand and Rabindranath Maharaj, of Luminous Ink- writers on writing in Canada (Cormorant). Her forthcoming books include Where Are You Agnes? (Groundwood Books), a picture book for children based on the life of abstract expressionist painter Agnes Martin. She is one of the winners of the Eccles British Library Award 2018, for her forthcoming memoir- Shame on Me- an anatomy of race and belonging. She is also a librettist, most recently working with British composer Hannah Kendall. McWatt is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.