“The further I get in my career, the more I want to connect and create spaces where people have the opportunity to tell their stories and experience the creative freedom that I know,” shared Carrie Snyder (BA 1997). A literary fiction writer, Carrie has won various accolades for her writing. Now, she runs a workshop that enables immigrant and refugee women in Waterloo to tell their own stories.  

Carrie was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and spent several years of her childhood in Bluffton, Ohio before her family moved to Managua, Nicaragua where her parents were peace activists. “Our family moved to Waterloo when I was ten, when my dad took a job teaching Anabaptist history and Peace and Conflict Studies at Grebel,” she said. As an undergraduate student, Carrie lived at Grebel and was later an Associate while working in the College’s kitchen on weekends. She was also part of a women's group that formed around shared meals and singing. "I made some really great friends – my roommate was a Don, and we were both really interested in writing,” Carrie noted. She remembered becoming close with Hildi Froese Tiessen, a now-retired Grebel professor who taught English courses and Peace and Conflict Studies. “She was a wonderful mentor for me – she really believed in my writing,” Carrie recalled.   

Carrie Snyder
Photo taken by Hilary Gauld

Carrie graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies. Moving to Toronto, she soon earned an MA in English Literature from the University of Toronto, focused on women’s and Canadian literature. After graduation (and a fair amount of job hunting) Carrie took a position at the National Post, a brand-new newspaper at the time. "The position was called assistant editor, but it basically meant assistant to the books editor. I would fact check and call up publishers and writers,” she described. "I was eventually moved up to copy editor – it was a fun and exciting environment to work in, especially for a young, aspiring writer.”  

Carrie and her husband moved to Guelph when they were expecting their first child because she wanted to be closer to her family, and it was also where Carrie tried freelance writing. "It wasn't the worst idea, because I had contacts, and got some reasonably good freelance jobs while I started writing my first novel,” she said. Not long after her first child was born, Carrie heard from an agent interested in representing her first novel (which did not ultimately get published). The agent eventually connected Carrie with a publisher for Hair Hat, a collection of short stories. “That’s kind of how my writing career got started,” she recalled. “It's sort of all braided in with looking after babies, being home full time, and trying to figure out how to get my writing career off the ground.”  

Carrie noted that raising four children changed the trajectory of her career. “I spent a lot of time looking after children, which is very time consuming and not that glamourous,” she stated. Carrie learned how to carve out time for herself as the years went by so that she could write. She explained, "I never did lose the ambition to want to publish and be a writer, so I just kept figuring out, well, how can I do it?”    

About eight years after the release of her first book, Carrie published her second book, The Juliet Stories, which was loosely based on her childhood living in Nicaragua. "I received a Canada Council travel grant and got to see what Nicaragua was like again,” she expressed. Despite the fact that The Juliet Stories was a finalist for a Governor General's Literary Award in 2012, Carrie explained that “as a Canadian writer, I wasn't really making money. I had to decide what to do. I needed to either make money or do something else.” Although Carrie’s initial interest was in short stories, her publisher urged her to write a novel. “I had gotten interested in endurance sports – I wanted to do an Olympic-length triathlon,” Carrie explained. After completing the triathlon, she started researching women's running to understand its history, and found “some interesting stories about Canadian women running.” These stories transformed into Girl Runner, an historical novel that was published in Canada in 2014 and was a finalist for that year's Rogers' Writers Trust Prize for Fiction. In the years that followed, the novel was published in numerous countries and translated into more than a dozen languages. “It was the pinnacle of success I had imagined reaching – earning a living just from writing,” Carrie shared. “It was a magical thing.” Meanwhile, Carrie had started teaching creative writing at the University of Waterloo and St. Jerome’s University.  

In 2018, Carrie became interested in trying something adjacent to writing. “I got the idea to start a storytelling workshop that would combine theater elements, writing, and bring a group of women together,” Carrie explained. She specifically wanted to work with women who were immigrants or refugees to Canada, and with the help of UWaterloo Professor Dr. Lamees Al Ethari and a couple of community grants, the project was funded and off the ground. “During the 12 weeks, 21 women wrote and memorized an original story, while receiving vocal coaching to turn it into a performance,” Carrie said, reflecting on that first season in 2019. She noted that after the initial performance, many people wanted to continue the project. “We just finished season five. It has been an amazing, collaborative, creative project,” Carrie expressed.  “This is what made me want to be a writer – the magic of imagery, storytelling, and a shared narrative.”  

Carrie advised Grebel students to “find ways to be involved, even if it’s just through Community Supper – it’s a great way to create connection.” She noted that one of her children lived at Grebel and enjoyed being part of student council. “There are lots of leadership opportunities, which is awesome,” she observed.   

Professionally, Carrie feels like she is at a crossroads. “In some ways, I feel like I have achieved what I had hoped to, as a writer,” Carrie described. Now that her personal writing goals have come to fruition, Carrie is seeking (and finding!) other ways to share her love of reading and storytelling, in hopes of fostering safe and creative spaces that bring people together. Certainly, whatever passion Carrie decides to pursue next, it will involve “digging up interesting stories."

By Natasha Forth

Carrie Snyder (BA 1997) is a creator in many mediums, as her career is filled with writing, editing, teaching, and running workshops. Carrie is the author of several books, including Francie’s Got a Gun (2022), Girl Runner (2014), The Juliet Stories (2012), and Hair Hat (2004). She has also written two children's books and currently works in a library in an elementary school. Carrie lived and participated in the Grebel community during her undergraduate years and has been a sessional lecturer at the University of Waterloo. Most recently, she co-founded the X Page storytelling workshop for immigrant and refugee women. Carrie lives in Waterloo with her husband and children. 

Carrie's story is part of Grebel's 60 Stories for 60 Years project. Check out our 60 Stories page for more articles in this series. If you would like to nominate a Grebel alumnus to share about their experiences at Grebel, please submit a nomination form.