Home Contact Sitemap login Checkout

Gail Sidonie Sobat
Gail Sobat
  • Home
  • Order Books
    • Order Books
    • Adult & Poetry
    • Young Adults
  • Gail's Blabitty Bla Bla Blog
  • About Gail
    • About Gail
    • Presentations
  • Contact
Home/About Gail Print This Page

Hi,
I'm Gail Sidonie Šobat.

From authoring award winning books, to public speaking, I have a lot to say - and more to write.

Me

A little about me

Me in a nutshell

I've been and am everything from an author to public speaker to camp coordinator. My name is Gail Sidonie Šobat, and you can discover my writing across my website. I've notably founded Youthwrite, helping hundreds of kids explore their creative passions.

Continue reading

I absolutely love to write

Have you seen my books?

From whimsical stories to dramatic and serious tales of adversity & adolescence, I have written a wide variety of literature that you can find online. I also have more mature and adult-orientated literature that you can explore.

Take a Look

My books

Get a taste of my writing style

Visit Blog

Speaking

I'm an excellent public speaker

Got an event coming up? I might be available to speak at it

My background and experience of being a spokesperson for promoting creativity and writing has been very sought after by organizations looking for a public speaker. If you'd like to know if I'm available for an upcoming event — I'll gladly respond as soon as I can.

Contact Me

I founded YouthWrite®

Helping promote reading, creativity, and so much more

Youthwrite® is all about the creative arts and creative writing. YouthWrite celebrates critical and creative thinking and seeks to broaden young participants’ global and environmental awareness, modelling writing as a powerful tool for change.

Visit YouthWrite


Detailed Bio

Gail Sidonie Šobat is a witch at heart, a pirate in her dreams, and a gypsy in practice. She has assumed any number of disguises in her lifetime, including that of teacher, adjunct professor, woman-in-black, professional actor and singer, grounds keeper, flag girl, parimutuel seller and flower seller.

She is the creator/ coordinator of YouthWrite®, camps for kids who love to write, just about anything!©, its adult version, JustWrite, and the Spoken Word Choirs. Gail is also an instructor in the Communications and Arts and Cultural Management programs at MacEwan. From 2016-2020, she was the regional representative for The Writers' Union of Canada.

She has moved over 40 times in her life from Badlands to Siksika Nation Reserve to hideous suburbs to Istanbul to the Sunshine Coast to her writer’s garret in a near-century-old temperamental house. Gail completed a Master’s degree in English at the University of Alberta in Children’s Literature, specializing in fantasy.

She is also an award-winning teacher. For the Legacy Project, a high school program addressing the gulf between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, Gail and her co-creators (Wally Diefenthaler and Kaye Steward) were named finalists for the Governor General Excellence in Teaching History Award and garnered national recognition and international attention.

A pen and paper

Her dedication to mentoring youth through the provincial arts summer camp, YouthWrite, was celebrated in a half-hour documentary that aired on BookTV.

Gail’s vision was to create a retreat-like setting where young writers could participate in an interdisciplinary exploration of words, including songwriting, cartooning, dance and text, drumming and text, hip hop, storytelling, playwriting, screenwriting, photojournalism, interwoven with fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry.

For twenty-five years, YouthWrite camps and workshops, presented by a group of dynamic and established Canadian artists under Gail’s direction, have helped young aspiring authors develop confidence and a sense of place in the world.

Experience in professional theatre and singing make Gail at ease in performance and with any age group. Described as vivacious and lively, Gail is frequently sought after as a speaker, workshop presenter and writer-in-residence.

She has presented across Canada, including Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Jasper, Banff, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal (with the TD Canadian Children’s Book Week 2004), through Northern Saskatchewan with the Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System; in Doha, Qatar with the Qatar Reading Association; in Hanoi, Vietnam; at conferences throughout Alberta; in Cincinatti, Ohio; Monteagle, Tennessee; New Orleans, Louisiana; at the International Conference on Poetry, Biography and Canon in Bern, Switzerland; and at the Death in Literature Conference at the Helsinki Academy for Advanced Studies. Gail has been writer in residence in several Edmonton schools, at Queens’ University, in Doha, Qatar, at the University of Alberta through the Canadian Authors Association, at the UN International School of Hanoi, and most recently at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Toronto Public Library noted that Gail is "energetic and friendly, ... a warm and engaging speaker with a great sense of humour. She gave excellent, in-depth answers to all questions throughout her talk and demonstrated her passion for writing for youth. Her visit was excellent and a highlight for library programming."

A collage of book covers.

Gail’s work has been published in academic and literary journals, anthologies, and has been broadcast on radio and performed on stage.

In addition to her forthcoming poetry collection, Lessons from the Greeks, she is the author of the YA fantasy series Ingamald, A Winter’s Tale, and A Glass Darkly; a novel for adults, the award-winning The Book of Mary, and two collections of poetry, Aortic Caprice and How the Light is Spent. In collaboration with illustrator artist, Spyder Yardley-Jones, Gail wrote the graphic novel, Jamie's Got a Gun, and the picture book, In the Graveyard. Her other young adult novels include Gravity Journal, Chance to Dance for You, and Not with a Bang.

Gail Sidonie Sobat – Bibliography
  • Ingamald - Spotted Cow Press, Edmonton, AB, 2001(ISBN 0-9688977-6-2) 
  • A Winter’s Tale - Great Plains Publications, Winnipeg, MB, 2004 (ISBN 1-894283-45-7)
  • A Glass Darkly - Great Plains Publications, Winnipeg, MB, 2006 (ISBN 1-894283-69-4)
  • Aortic Caprice - River Books, Edmonton, AB, 2003/2004 (ISBN 1-895836-97-2)
  • The Book of Mary - Sumach Press, Toronto, ON, 2006 (ISBN 1-894549-54-6)
  • Gravity Journal – Great Plains Publications, Winnipeg, MB, 2008 (ISBN 1894283783)
  • Chance to Dance for You – Great Plains Publications, Winnipeg, MB, 2011 (ISBN 978-1-926531-11-3)
  • In the Graveyard  (illus. Spyder Yardley-Jones) - Bryler Publications, Chester, NS, 2011 (ISBN 978-1-927003-19-0
  • Not With a Bang – Palimpsest Press – Kingsville, ON, 2012 (ISBN 978-1-926794-12-9)
  • How the Light is Spent – Wintergreen Studios Press, Kingston, ON, 2013 (ISBN 9780986547393)
  • Jamie’s Got a Gun – Great Plains Publications, Winnipeg, MB, 2014 (ISBN 978-1-926531-88-5) 



Copyright © 2021 Gail Sidonie Šobat. All rights reserved.

Order Books

Jamie's Got A Gun

Ingamald

A Winters Tale

The Book of Mary


Aortic Caprice

A Glass Darkly

Gravity Journal

Chance To Dance For You


In The Graveyard

Not With A Bang

How The Light Is Spent

About

About Gail

Blog

Contact

Built on ShoutCMS. Designed by Mediashaker.