Based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, Canada, Nancy O’Rourke is a writer of essays, memoirs, and poetry. With a PhD in sociology, specializing in human rights and social justice, she has written widely on issues affecting the rights of women and children. Her story “Descent into Darkness,” focusing on a visit to the Kigali genocide memorial in Rwanda, won the 2018 Creative Nonfiction Collective award and was published in carte blanche. In 2024, she won the Dreamers award for her essay “Arrival,” an account about recognizing home in a foreign land. Her writing has been shortlisted in additional literary contests, nominated for a National Magazine Award, and has been supported by the Access Copyright Foundation, the Banff Centre’s Emerging Writers’ Intensive, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts.

 

At present Nancy is working on a memoir, and a collection of essays. She also offers editorial support services to writers of fiction and nonfiction. 

 

In her free time, Nancy takes photos and paints—abstracts and portraits—sometimes of the characters she writes about.