Tessa McWatt facts for kids

Tessa McWatt is a talented writer who was born in Georgetown, Guyana. She is also a professor of creative writing. She teaches at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom. In 2021, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. This means she was chosen as a special member of a group that celebrates great writers.

Early Life and Moving to Canada

Tessa McWatt was born in Georgetown, Guyana. When she was three years old, her family moved to Canada. She grew up in Toronto. Her family loved being outdoors in Canada. They enjoyed camping, skiing, and canoeing together.

As a child, Tessa was interested in music, sports, and books. She knew from a young age that she wanted to be a writer.

Education and Learning

Tessa McWatt studied English literature at Queen's University. After that, she earned her master's degree at the University of Toronto. Her master's studies focused on how people from different backgrounds are seen in society. She also explored ideas about what it means to belong.

Writing Career

After finishing university, Tessa McWatt worked as an editor and a college teacher. She lived in different cities like Montreal, Paris, and Ottawa. In 1999, she moved to London, England. There, she taught creative writing and continued to write her own books. Today, she is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK.

Books for Young Adults and Novels

Tessa McWatt has written many books. These include novels, short stories, and essays. She also wrote a novella (a short novel) for young adults called There's No Place Like... (2004).

Her first novel was Out of My Skin (1998). It tells the story of a Canadian woman who was adopted and searches for her family roots. Her second novel, Dragons Cry (2001), was nominated for important awards. These included the City of Toronto Book Awards and the Canadian Governor General's Literary Awards.

Other novels she has written include:

• This Body (2004)
• Step Closer (2009)
• Vital Signs (2011), which was nominated for the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature
• Higher Ed (2015)
• The Snow Line (2021), nominated for the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize

Her most recent non-fiction book is The Snag: A Mother, A Forest and Wild Grief, which was published in 2025.

Other Creative Works

Tessa McWatt also wrote the words for an opera called The Knife of Dawn. This opera was created by Hannah Kendall. It was based on the story of a political activist named Martin Carter. He was held in prison in 1953 in what was then British Guiana.

She also helped edit a book called Luminous Ink: Writers on Writing in Canada (2018). She worked on this book with Dionne Brand and Rabindranath Maharaj.

In 2018, Tessa McWatt won the Eccles British Library Award. This was for her memoir, Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging. A memoir is a book about a person's own life and experiences. This book was also nominated for several other awards in 2020. It won the Non-Fiction Winner of the 2020 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.