About Richard

Richard Scarsbrook is a Canadian Writer, Teacher, and Entertainer. He grew up in the tiny rural crossroads of Olinda, Ontario, and earned an Honours BA in History from Western University and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Ottawa. He has called Toronto home for over twenty years.

Scarsbrook is the author of ten books: the novels The Troupers, Rockets Versus Gravity, The Indifference League, Nothing Man and The Purple Zero, The Monkeyface Chronicles, Featherless Bipeds, and Cheeseburger Subversive. the short story collection Destiny’s Telescope, and the poetry collections Six Weeks and Apocalypse One Hundred. Two more novels are on the way: The Girl Who Could Not Die, and Speedway Cinema. He has also published stories and poems in nearly one hundred magazines, journals, and anthologies.

Richard’s books have been short-listed for the CLA Book of the Year Award (twice), the Stellar Book Prize, and ReLit Award, and the OLA White Pine Award (twice), which he won in 2011 for The Monkeyface Chronicles. His poetry chapbook Guessing at Madeline won the 1997 Cranberry Tree Press Poetry Chapbook Competition. He has also won the Matrix LitPop Award, the Hinterland Award for Prose, the Lawrence House Centre for the Arts Short Story Competition, the New Orphic Short Story Prize, the Scarborough Arts Council Poetry Competition, and has been a finalist for the Exile/Vanderbilt Short Story Prize, the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize, the Fish Short Story Prize, and the New Century Writer Awards.

After teaching high school for several years, performing roles onstage such as Mr. Toad in Toad of Toad Hall, Gratiano in The Merchant of Venice, Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, and Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace, and playing in the bands The Know, The Nerve, and Featherless Bipeds, Scarsbrook now teaches creative writing at George Brown College and the Humber School for Writers. He makes frequent appearances at festivals and in schools and libraries, sharing his passion for writing and helping hundreds of novice writers improve their craft. He has served as Writer in Residence for the Toronto Public Library, the Toronto District Board of Education, the Richmond Hill Public Library, and the Orangeville Public Library. In 2011, Scarsbrook also served as a juror for the Governor General’s Literary Awards.

Scarsbrook is currently moving into the screenwriting business, and his first produced screenplay, Royal Blood, was an official selection at many international film festivals; it won Best Short Film at the TIFF-associated Milton Film Festival, and its North American Pay TV Rights have been purchased by the ShortsTV Channel. Scarsbrook has written screenplays and pilots based on his award-winning books, which are currently available. His TV Pilot The Monkeyface Chronicles was a finalist for the CFC/EOne Television Adaptation Lab, and his screenplays have been performing well in major screenwriting competitions, including ScreenCraft, PAGE, Slamdance, and Final Draft Big Break.