Ami McKay is the author of “The Birth House”.
Ami McKay was born and raised in Indiana. She studied music education at
Indiana State University. She then moved to teach music at the Chicago Waldolf
High School. During this time, Ami McKay would write short stories and ideas
for novels down at night. In 2000, Ami McKay moved to Scots Bay, Nova Scotia.
She started writing again while she waited for her residency papers. It was a
New Years Resolution to write thank you letters to people she didn’t know that
led Ami McKay to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The thank you note was for a
book she read while recovering from a car accident several years earlier that
forced Ami to stop putting off her writing. Ami McKay then signed up for a
summer workshop on “Writing for Radio”, which led her to write and produce
documentaries for CBC Radio that featured on programmes such as “This Morning”
(which broadcast “Learning to Box”), “Maritime Magazine”, “First Person
Singular”, and “OutFront” (which broadcast the documentaries “Kitchen Ghosts”,
“The Midwife House”, and “From Smart Girl to Scat Girl”). Ami McKay is also a
talented musician, writing the score for theatrical productions of “Mother
Courage”, “The Clouds”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and “The Tempest”. Ami
McKay’s novel, “Given”, came second in the 27th Atlantic Writing
Competition in 2004. In addition, Ami is involved in PEN Canada, and is an
Associate Editor of Fiction for “The Antigonish Review”. “The Birth House” is
Ami McKay’s debut novel, and it has been chosen by Knopf Canada as their New
Face of Fiction’s 10th anniversary title. She was assisted in the
writing of the novel by her participation in the mentorship program run by the
Writers Federation of Nova Scotia, where she was paired up with the
accomplished author Richard Cumyn. Ami McKay has described herself as
“contemporary bard who
loves writing, singing and harp playing”. Ami McKay lives in Bay of Fundy, Nova
Scotia, with her family. It was when Ami McKay was pregnant that the women of
the local community began telling her stories about her home, which had
previously been a “birth house”, where the local midwife lived. These stories
inspired Ami McKay to write “The Birth House”.
Incidental Pieces – Ami McKay’s
blog
The Midwife House – scroll
down the “OutFront” webpage to find this excellent web feature put together by
Ami McKay and her husband Ian McKay. Turn on the volume on your computer to get
the full effect. Our Home
Today is another webpage in this feature
Christ on a Bike – an
Ami McKay story in pdf format
Connecting with your
Creative Soul – an Ami McKay feature on a spiritual webpage
What inspired “The Birth
House” – Ami McKay tells all
Birth of a novelist – Jodi
Delong’s interview with Ami McKay
Birth of a Novel – Andrea
Curtis’ interview with Ami
Author
Q&A – Ami McKay answers questions about “The Birth House”
Daughter
of Family G – more details about a radio documentary produced by Ami McKay
that featured her great grandmother’s sister. This documentary won an
Excellence in Journalism Medallion at the 2003 Atlantic Journalism Awards. The
documentary was broadcast on CBC’s “The Sunday Edition”
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