Crafting a Shared Narrative
“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 spent her career telling stories. In recent years, she has also used her skills to help immigrant and refugee women in Waterloo tell their own stories through The X Page.
This work, along with her career as a writer and teacher, has earned Carrie the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Service Award from Conrad Grebel University College. The award recognizes Grebel alumni whose contributions to the church, community, nation, or world reflect the ideals and purposes of the College.
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 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 graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies. She also earned an MA in English Literature from the University of Toronto, focused on women’s and Canadian literature. After graduation, Carrie took a position at the National Post as assistant editor and then copy editor. “It was a fun and exciting environment to work in, especially for a young, aspiring writer.”
When Carrie and her husband moved back to Guelph and Waterloo, they raised their four children while she did freelance writing. “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.”
In the subsequent decades, Carrie authored several books of literary fiction including Francie’s Got a Gun (2022), Girl Runner (2014), The Juliet Stories (2012), Hair Hat (2004), and two children’s books. She was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2012 and the Rogers’ Writers Trust Prize for Fiction in 2014, and Girl Runner was 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. She also began 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 theatre 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 some community grants, the project got 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 the first season. The X Page has continued in the years since. “It has been an amazing, collaborative, creative project,” Carrie added. “This is what made me want to be a writer—the magic of imagery, storytelling, and a shared narrative.”
“Nominating Carrie Snyder is both a recognition of her writing accomplishments and her ongoing contributions to the community through her writing workshops,” shared Alina Balzerson, Alumni Committee Chair. “She is a noted author and her writing is exceptional. But her work through the University of Waterloo is what contributes most to her nomination. She has built a workshop with newcomers to create stories. Her ability to collaborate with community members and theatre professionals has inspired groups of women to be storytellers. This is the kind of work that Grebel hopes to inspire and why Carrie deserves this recognition.”
Carrie’s next novel, Begin, is a historical fiction set in a print shop in Shakespeare’s London, with publication scheduled for fall 2027 with Simon & Schuster Canada. She also recently began an MA in Theology: Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Carrie will be presented with Grebel’s 2026 Distinguished Alumni Service Award at Community Supper on February 3, 2027. That evening, she will lead a writer’s workshop for the public, called “Creativity Unplugged.” Registration will open soon.
