BJ (Vind), ECE (IECED), BSW (Dalhousie), MEd (MSVU)
Wanda Taylor is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, journalist and college professor.
As an author of fiction and nonfiction, Wanda writes across both children’s and adult markets. Her middle grade nonfiction book, Birchtown and the Black Loyalists, is listed as one of the top Black History Month books for kids. Wanda’s most recent middle grade book, The Grover School Pledge, was named a top book for kids by Kobo Books and nominated for a Hackmatack Award. It was also the recipient of the 2023 Northern Lights Book Award in the US, an award honoring books around the globe that excel in literary quality, with an emphasis on permanency.
As a journalist and former television producer, Wanda has written and produced content for film, television and documentaries. Her docs have screened around the globe, including on streaming platforms such as Tenk, Quebec as part of their “Docs From the Vault” series, and on Eastlink Television as part of their series “Films That Teach.”
Wanda’s magazine features, poems and essays appear in publications across Canada, the US and the UK. As a former Acquisitions Editor, Wanda has acquired and championed titles from many emerging and established authors and continues to support the work of new writers as a freelance editor.
In her role as a sensitivity reader, Wanda collaborates with top publishers and authors on manuscripts-in-progress to ensure accuracy and authenticity in areas such as social work, race, diversity and cultural history. Most recently, Wanda was sensitivity reader for Simon & Schuster’s title, Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons; the manuscript of award-winning biographer Charlotte Gray, about the women who raised former US President Roosevelt and former UK Prime Minister Churchill.
Wanda currently teaches courses in journalism, communications and several creative writing and screenwriting courses. She is Adjunct Professor in the journalism program at King’s and serves as Cohort Director in the King’s MFA Writing and Publishing program for Fiction.
Recognition of Wanda’s work in her fields include the CAJ Award of Excellence and the Women of Excellence Award for Arts and Culture.
Selected Publications
Books
Middle Grade Nonfiction – The Sky’s the Limit in Aviation (Nimbus Publishing, forthcoming Feb. 2025)
Middle Grade Fiction – A Recipe for Rhyme and Reason (HarperCollins, forthcoming Dec. 2024)
Children’s Nonfiction Series- Amazing Women: June Augustine (Beech St Books, Sept. 2024)
Children’s Nonfiction Series- Amazing Women: Alessia Cara (Beech St Books, Sept. 2024)
The Grover School Pledge (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2023)
It’s Our Time: A History of the Preston Township (Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2021)
No One’s Baby (Toronto: Lorimer Publishing, 2019)
The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children: the Hurt, the Hope, and the Healing (Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2015
Birchtown and the Black Loyalists (Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2014)
Articles and Anthologized Works
Anthologies
Bad Artist – Creating Outside the Boxes (TouchWood Editions, Sept. 2024)
Where the River Still Flows, Dark Mountain Essay Anthology, 2022 (UK)
Shade Woman, Guernica Editions. Flash Fiction Anthology: 100 Canadian Flashes, 2022 (Canada)
Words Gathered Poetry Anthology, Selected Poems, Volume 3, 2022 (Canada)
Articles
Globe and Mail – Banning Books is Not a Solution, Sept. 2023
Quill & Quire – Author Q&A with Kai Thomas, In the Upper Country, Mar. 2023
Black2Business Magazine – Dr. Abdullah Kirumira: A Formula for Success, 2022 (Canada)
Farmer-ish Magazine – The Work Was Written in Their Hands, 2021 (USA)
Living Hyphen – The Generations Speak, 2021 (Canada)
DaCosta Magazine (3 articles) – Passing the Torch; On Being Black in Business; Decolonizing Design Education, 2021 (Canada)
Book Reviews
Quill & Quire – Book Review on The War You Hate, May 2024
Interests
Human interest stories; marginalized populations; diverse storytelling; Canadian history; true crime/investigative issues
