Lola Lemire Tostevin is a bilingual Canadian writer who works mainly in English. Born into a French Canadian family in Timmins, Ontario, she studied Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta. She taught creative writing at York University, Toronto and was writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario from 2004 to 2005.

She is the author of eight collections of poetry plus works of literary criticism. She has translated into English the work of several writers including Anne Hébert, Saint-Denys-Garneau, Nicole Brossard, Paule Thévenin, editor of the work of Antonin Araud. She has also translated Michael Ondaatje's Elimination Dance into French.

Kaki, the French translation of her novel, Frog Moon, was published by Prise de Parole. Two collections of poetry, 'sophie and Color of Her Speech were translated into Italian ('sophie and Il Colore Del Suo Parlare) and published by Edizioni Empiria. Her French fiction has appeared in anthologies such as XYZ - La Revue de la Nouvelle and her short fiction in English has appeared in anthologies including Closets of Time and The Sound of Smoke, published by Mercury Press and Teksteditions. She has twice guest-edited editiions of Open Letter, Canadian journal of writing and theory. Her most recent novel, The Other Sister, was published in the fall of 2008, and her most recent collecction of poems, Singed Wings, appeared in the summer of 2013.

 

Tostevin has given many readings in Canada, United States, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, and Poland. She has twice been invited and given readings at Le Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2006, she gave several readings in Poland under the auspices of the Institute of British and American Culture and Literature, University of Silesia. In the spring of 2007, Tostevin gave a series of talks and readings in Rome and Ferrara related to the publication of 'sofia.

Tostevin has lived in Northern Ontario, Montreal, Edmonton, Fort McMurray and Paris, France. She now resides in Toronto with her family.