Music-lover, cello player, ESL teacher, and writer Emily Givner was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. From birth her life was complicated and restricted by asthma and allergy problems although she refused to let her aliments interfere with her life of travel, music and writing. She was mentored by the novelist and neuroradiologist, Aryeh Lev Stollman, whose work she loved. On her death she left a considerable amount of writing - files of letters home recording her experiences in different countries, essays on the writing process and a substantial collection of unpublished stories and novellas. With the assistance of editor Sean Virgo, these were published as A Heart In Port (Thistledown, 2007), her first book, with an endorsement from Alice Munro. Emily Givner died suddenly and tragically on July 5th, 2004 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, of an allergic reaction, aged 38. Her mother is the writer Joan Givner.

[BCBW 2007] "Fiction"