Northern Girls

"What goes on in this house stays in this house." That was the rule when author Michelle Willms was growing up, and she abided out of loyalty--until now. In the care of a single, working mother who uses alcohol to quiet her childhood memories, Michelle and her siblings are often left without a responsible parental figure to care for them, and more often than not find themselves alone or in danger. They learn to appease, negotiate with, or physically fight off the abusive men who track through their home. Brave, engaging and electric, Northern Girls is a collection of true stories about the fractured legacy of growing up in rural northern Ontario. Exploring themes of generational trauma, parental addictions, and domestic violence, Willms confronts a past replete with both fragility and resilience.

Michelle Willms holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Bachelor of Social Work from McMaster University, and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. Her writing has appeared in multiple literary journals, as well as the anthology This Side of the Divide: Stories of the American West(Baobab Press). She is the 2021/2022 recipient of the Norman L. Rothstein Memorial Scholarship, awarded by the Smith Family Foundation on the recommendation of the Department of Creative Writing. Michelle and her family live in Southern Ontario, Canada, as sett