Sydney Hegele

Credit to Angela Lewis, 2024

Sydney Hegele (formerly known as Sydney Warner Brooman) is a Canadian writer. ^[1]

Early life and education

Originally from Grimsby, Ontario, Hegele attended the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario and is currently based in Toronto. ^[1] They identify as queer and use gender-neutral pronouns. ^[1]

Writing career

Hegele's debut short story collection, The Pump, was published in 2021. ^[2]

The Pump, a volume of interrelated short stories about outsiders living in a small town in Southern Ontario, was compared to the Southern Ontario Gothic style of writers such as Alice Munro. ^[2] The book was the winner of the 2022 ReLit Award for short fiction, ^[3] and was shortlisted for the 2022 Trillium Book Awards for English fiction. ^[4]

The book was also selected by CBC Books in 2022 as part of a Pride Month reading list of books by LGBTQ Canadian writers. ^[5]

Hegele's debut novel Bird Suit was published by Invisible Publishing in May 2024. Their essay collection Bad Kids, edited by author Alicia Elliott, is forthcoming in 2026.

Selected works

Essays

• "The Great Iconoclast", EVENT Magazine , 2023 ^[6]
• "Reading Stephen King’s ‘It’ As a Child Confused My Sense of Justice", Catapult Magazine, November 2022'' ^[7]
• "I Can’t Separate My Writing and My Diagnosis, So I Use Them to Help One Another", Electric Literature, August 2022 ^[8]
• "I Thought I’d Never Find Love After My Dissociative Identity Disorder Diagnosis", Catapult Magazine, July 2022 ^[9]

Short stories

• "Dirt Mouth", Room Magazine , July 2023 ^[10]
• "Mal Aux Dents (Or Toothache)", American Chordata, 2020 ^{[11] [ full citation needed ]}

Poetry

• The Last Thing I Will See Before I Die, 845 Press, 2022 ^[12]

Awards

• ReLit Award for Short Fiction for The Pump (2022) ^[3]
• Finalist for the Trillium Book Award for The Pump, English Fiction (2022) ^[4]

References

1. James M. Fisher, "The Sydney Warner Brooman Interview". The Miramichi Reader, October 25, 2021.
2. Steven W. Beattie, "Small-town Ontario has a new chronicler in debut author Sydney Warner Brooman’s new book ‘The Pump’". Toronto Star , September 2, 2021.
3. "Toronto author Sydney Hegele wins 2022 ReLit Award for short fiction collection The Pump". CBC Books . 13 May 2022. Archived from the original on 18 November 2022. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
4. Ahsan, Sadaf (10 May 2022). "Gothic stories, genre-defying memoirs among Trillium Book Award finalists". Toronto Star . Archived from the original on 29 July 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
5. "26 Canadian books to read for Pride Month". CBC Books, June 7, 2022.
6. "Notes on Writing Issue" . Event Magazine . Vol. 51, no. 3. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
7. "Reading Stephen King's 'It' As a Child Confused My Sense of Justice". Catapult Magazine. 17 October 2022. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
8. "I Can't Separate My Writing and My Diagnosis, So I Use Them to Help One Another". Electric Literature . 4 August 2022. Archived from the original on 24 July 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
9. "I Thought I'd Never Find Love After My Dissociative Identity Disorder Diagnosis". Catapult Magazine. 19 July 2022. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
10. "Ley Line". Room Magazine . Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
11. "American Chordata". Stack magazines . No. 10. Fall 2020. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
12. Parker, Fawn; Berkel, Jenny. "The Last Thing I Will See Before I Die". www.thetemzreview.com. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 1 August 2023.