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Meet the Author: Natalie Meisner

Meet the author: Natalie Meisner

By Date: August 31, 2020 Tags: Meet the Author

Get to know the author behind the hilarious Speed Dating for Sperm Donors—Natalie Meisner!

Describe yourself in one sentence.
I am a working-class queer writer from the east coast: poet, playwright, professor, mom, and newly minted poet laureate of YYC whose sense of humour is her personal floatation device. 

What’s something unique about you or something that you like to do?
Fish, forage, and grow food with my sons. Their delight is palpable when they can eat something they grew, gathered, or caught themselves. I also love basketball: that feeling when you hit that special spot at the back of the net that makes the string sing.  

What are some of your favourite plays?
So hard to choose but my favourites are plays that tackle big think issues while deploying humour. Caryl Churchill, Michel Tremblay, Adrienne Kennedy, Tomson Highway, Marie Clements, Gertrude Stein, Yvette Nolan, Daniel MacIvor, Anne Marie MacDonald, Djuna Barnes, Michel Marc Bouchard, Paula Vogel, Sarah Ruhl, and Wajdi Mouawad. 

What’s something you’ve discovered during the pandemic?
If I ever thought I was some kind of introvert, or half-introvert or hybrid…I was wrong. I miss the rehearsal hall. I MISS ALL YOU GERMY HUMANS SO MUCH.  

What are you reading these days?
Against Creativity by Oli Mould 
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni 
The Republic of Nothing by Lesley Choyce 

What’s something that makes you laugh? 
My sons crack me up every day. If you listen, really listen to the way kids are constructing meaning out of the world around them, it is a treasure trove of laughter. Together we revisit some of the classics too, like the ministry of silly walks. When I have a rare spare solo moment, I often take myself along to McSweeneys for humour that holds contemporary life up to the light. Here is a recent piece that got me right in the feels. 

Learn more about Natalie:
Natalie Meisner is a playwright, an award-winning multi-genre author, and the fifth Poet Laureate of Calgary. Baddie One Shoe is a collection of odes to renegade women who fight the powers that be with laughter. Boom Baby won both the Alberta and the Canadian National Playwriting Awards. Speed Dating for Sperm Donors was a hit at Lunchbox and Neptune Theatre. Double Pregnant (Fernwood) topped non-fiction lists, and her first book for kids, My Mommy, My Mama, My Brother & Me is about a two-mom biracial family finding community. Meisner is a wife, a mom to two great boys, and a professor in the Department of English at Mount Royal University. 

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