![](https://portal.writersunion.ca/sites/default/files/styles/public_profile/public/2024-07/Glenna Turnbull Head Shot 2024 copy.jpeg)
Glenna worked as a freelance writer covering the arts in Kelowna BC for more than two decades, with a weekly column called Arts Seen and a magazine column called Musical Notes. Her short fiction first began appearing in literary magazines back in 1997 and in the past five years has been published in The New Quarterly, Riddle Fence, Prism International, Luna Station Quarterly, Cliterature and is forthcoming in the Best Canadian Short Stories 2025 edition.
Winner of the 2023 Jacob Zilber Short Fiction prize, she has also been on the short list for the Peter Hinchcliffe award and for Event magazine's Let Your Hair Down speculative fiction prize, earning Honourable Mention in both.
Jobs she held in her misspent youth run the gamut--from a piano teacher to exotic dancer, file clerk to model and actor. She's sold flowers on the streets and at one point, was homeless and sleeping on mattress pulled from dumpster. She was briefly married until she found herself fleeing to the Women's Shelter one too many times. She put herself through university while raising two children as a single parent, taking one or two courses per semester and graduating at age 50 with a BA majoring in ENG/CRWR from UBC Okanagan. All of this has given her a rich pool of life experience in which to write from.
Her debut novel will be published by Breakwater Books in early 2026.