Lauren Kirshner is a writer, community arts leader, and Associate Professor in the Department of English at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Her novel, Where We Have to Go (M&S), which the Globe and Mail called “a very strong original debut,” was a finalist for the City of Toronto Book Award. It has been translated into Dutch and German and also earned her “Toronto’s Best Emerging Author” award from NOW magazine.

Lauren’s new book, Sex Work in Popular Culture (UTP), recently featured in Jacobin. Cultural Studies lauded it for its “rich evidence and engaging prose,” describing it as an “important reference” with relevance “not only to academic discourse but also to activism and advocacy.” In 2025, it received an Honourable Mention for the Popular Culture Association’s Ray and Pat Browne Book Award.

Her journalism, poetry, short fiction, and memoir have been featured in publications across North America, including The Globe and Mail, Hazlitt, Chatelaine, PRISM International, The Toronto Star, ELLE, THIS, Carousel, Taddle Creek, The Malahat Review, and Room. Her non-fiction work on the women maquiladora workers of Juarez, Mexico, “Twenty Poems about Claudia,” appeared in the acclaimed paper documentary I Live Here.

One of her first writing assignments was an interview with late great Clash guitarist and singer Joe Strummer for NOW.

Lauren is a graduate of The University of Toronto’s Masters of English in the Field of Creative Writing, where she was mentored by Margaret Atwood. In 2019, she received her PhD from the York-Ryerson Joint Program in Communication and Culture, where her dissertation was nominated for a Governor General’s Gold Medal.

As a leading arts educator, Lauren has made significant contributions to the arts and community engagement. She has led hundreds of community workshops and designed programming for organizations such as Luminato, Harbourfront Centre, The Toronto Public Library, and The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Her Young Authors Project was a finalist for the Ontario Government Minister’s Award for Innovation in Arts.

She is most widely known as the founder of Sister Writes, an acclaimed creative writing program that empowers marginalized women by offering free creative writing classes and mentorship from celebrated female writers. Noted by The Toronto Star and CBC for its innovation, Sister Writes is dedicated to honouring the wisdom and experience of women and amplifying their voices.