AnnickPress

Emily Pohl-Weary grew up in Toronto’s west end. As a child, she always had a book or ten on the go. In elementary school, Emily attended a French immersion program. In school plays, she was always given unfortunate bit parts, like Snow White’s Sleepy Dwarf or “La petite fille qui pleure.” So in grade six, she borrowed her mother’s typewriter and rewrote the Wizard of Oz in French, then cast all the kids in her class. That production was never staged, but on weekends, she forced her friends to act in plays with plots plucked from her imagination.

Later, she was involved in some wicked hide-and-seek and spin-the-bottle games. High school was a blur of miniskirts, expensive cars (not hers—she still doesn’t drive), violin lessons, choir practices, beach parties, and football quarterbacks. Oh, and skipping class to protest the first Gulf war—or just to skip class.

She can’'t remember a time when she didn’t write. When she was young, she kept secret diaries and wrote bad poetry. Her advice for aspiring authors/illustrators is to “write the kinds of thing you like to read. Don’t give up, no matter what. Trust yourself. Everything takes time, but since your own time’s all you can really control in life, you might as well use it up doing things you love.”

Her mother really hoped she would grow up and get a real job, but her mother now understands that sanity dictates Emily should not try to do anything else. All four of her parents (including two steps) encouraged reading.

Emily’s grandparents were science fiction writers. Frederik Pohl, her grandfather, is still an active writer at the age of 86. His many books include The Space Merchants (the first satire of a world ruled by advertising agencies) and the Heechee series. Her grandmother, Judith Merril, the “little mother of science fiction,” was one of the first women writing and editing in the genre. The Toronto Public Library’s Merril Collection is named after her. When Judith passed away in 1997, Emily completed a book about her life, Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril, which was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award and won a Hugo Award.

Emily’s favorite books as a child were: Nancy Drew mysteries—she had a set of the old hard covers, which she read over and over; Archie and Richie Rich comic books, as well as any others with a female superhero on the cover; anything by Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters; Piers Anthony’s Xanth fantasy series; Judy Blume’s teen novels; Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance; folk tales and myths from around the world, especially the ones from ancient Greece and the stories about Anansi the trickster spider-man.

She really loved the idea of Nancy Drew—an intrepid, stubborn, fearless girl detective—but found the actual character lacking. The fact that she was good at everything, always had perfect hair, and solved crimes in her pumps really bugged her, not to mention the fact that she mostly seemed to save people who were rich, and you could usually tell who the bad guys were because they were poor and described as “swarthy.”

Emily is inspired by art, TV, video games and films with interesting, empowered female characters. She’s read everything she can get her hands on by the following authors: Francesca Lia Block (Girl Goddess #9); Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials series); Golda Fried (Darkness, Then a Blown Kiss); Nalo Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring); Ninjalicious (Access All Areas); Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude); Isabel Allende (The House of the Spirits); Marge Piercy (Vida); Sara Paretsky (Blacklist); Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street); Jaime and Gilberto Hernandez (Love and Rockets comics); and Stan Lee (creator of so many Marvel comics).

In addition to Emily’s book with Annick, she edited Kiss Machine, a magazine about “independent art, literary culture, and political views” for nine years. She also wrote a girl pirate comic illustrated by Willow Dawson, has published a novel and a collection of poetry, was a former editor of Broken Pencil, and her writing has appeared in several magazines.

Emily lives with her husband in Toronto, Ontario.