Camilla Gibb (born February 20, 1968) is an English-born Canadian writer who currently resides in Toronto.

Early life and education

Born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England, she grew up in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, and studied at

North Toronto Collegiate Institute North Toronto Collegiate Institute (North Toronto CI, NTCI, NT, or North Toronto) is a non-semestered, public high school institution with over 1,200 students located in North Toronto area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school is operated and ...

and

Jarvis Collegiate Institute Jarvis Collegiate Institute is a high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is named after Jarvis Street where it is located. It is a part of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). Prior to 1998, it was within the Toronto Board of Education (T ...

. She attended the

American University in Cairo The American University in Cairo (AUC; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة, Al-Jāmi‘a al-’Amrīkiyya bi-l-Qāhira) is a private research university in Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs ...

before receiving a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in anthropology and Middle Eastern studies from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

in social anthropology from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. She left academia in 2000 in order to pursue writing full-time.

Career

Gibb gained recognition as a writer with the publication of her first novel, ''Mouthing the Words'', in 1999. She wrote it while living in her brother's trailer home, working on a borrowed laptop, after receiving a $6,000 gift from a benefactor. In 2000, the novel won Gibb the City of Toronto Book Award, and in 2001, she won the CBC Canadian Literary Award for short fiction. Gibb's second novel, ''The Petty Details of So-and-So's Life'', was published in August 2002. Gibb's third novel, ''Sweetness in the Belly'' (2005), is set against the backdrop of the Ethiopian Revolution and largely takes place in the ancient walled city of

Harar Harar ( amh, ሐረር; Harari: ሀረር; om, Adare Biyyo; so, Herer; ar, هرر) known historically by the indigenous as Gey (Harari: ጌይ ''Gēy'', ) is a walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is also known in Arabic as the City of Saint ...

. It was shortlisted for the

Scotiabank Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...

in 2005, longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Award and won the

Trillium Award The Trillium Book Award (french: Prix littéraire Trillium or ''Prix Trillium'') is an annual literary award presented to writers in Ontario, Canada. It is administered by Ontario Creates, a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario, which is ove ...

for best book in Ontario in 2006. It has been produced as

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

starring

Dakota Fanning Hannah Dakota Fanning (born February 23, 1994) is an American actress. She rose to prominence at the age of seven for her performance as Lucy Dawson in the drama film ''I Am Sam'' (2001), for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomina ...

, Yahya Abdulmateen II and

Kunal Nayyar Kunal Nayyar (, ; born 30 April 1981) is a British actor. He portrayed Raj Koothrappali on the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019) and voiced Vijay on the Nickelodeon animated sitcom ''Sanjay and Craig'' (2013–2016). Nayyar als ...

. Her fourth novel, ''The Beauty of Humanity Movement'' was published in Canada in September 2010, and in the US and the UK in spring 2011. Gibb's memoir, ''This is Happy,'' was released in Canada on August 18, 2015.

Personal life

Gibb's father Duncan, a man she describes as "prone to manic outbursts and destructive, paranoid and cruel", but also intelligent and full of projects, disappeared when she was in her early twenties. She had very few contacts with him until his death. In 2009, Gibb separated from her partner, Heather Conway, after almost ten years together. Gibb was pregnant at the time; she later gave birth to a daughter. Her 2015 book ''This is Happy'' is a memoir that explores what the word "family" means to her, from the family she grew up in to the one she had to build with her child.

Selected works

* ''Mouthing the Words'' (Pedlar Press (Canada), Carrol and Graf (US), William Heinemann/Vintage (UK), 1999) * ''The Petty Details of So-and-So's Life'' (Doubleday Canada, 2002, Vintage UK) * ''Sweetness in the Belly'' (Doubleday Canada, 2005, William Heinemann/Vintage UK, Penguin Press US) * ''The Beauty of Humanity Movement'' (Doubleday Canada, 2010, Atlantic Books UK, Penguin Press US) * ''This is Happy'' (Doubleday Canada, 2015)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibb, Camilla 1968 births Living people 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Alumni of the University of Oxford Canadian women novelists English emigrants to Canada Canadian LGBT novelists University of Toronto alumni Writers from London Writers from Toronto Canadian women memoirists 21st-century Canadian memoirists 21st-century Canadian LGBT people