LEANNE DUNIC

Leanne was a child growing up on Vancouver Island when she first started dreaming about Paul McCartney. Those dreams led her to words and music, arms reaching for instruments, random library discoveries, and opportunities to make you laugh. She transgresses genres and form to produce projects such as To Love the Coming End (Book*hug/Chin Music Press 2017) and The Gift (Book*hug 2019). Her lyric memoir with music, One and Half of You, was published Spring 2021 by Talonbooks. Spring 2024 also saw the release of her novel-in-verse-and-photographs, Wet, also with Talonbooks.Leanne is the fiction mentor at Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio, and the fiction editor at Tahoma Literary Review.She is the leader of the band The Deep Cove, and lives on the unceded and occupied traditional territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh people.Contact: leanne.dunic[at]gmail.com

Salt Rich travels from the "wrinkled Adriatic" to the shores of Vancouver Island, recounting a family history through poetic still lifes of food, landscapes, bodies of water, and lives human and otherwise. These tender fragments explore hope and grief, hunger and nourishment, hardship and sacrifice, learning and loss.From Small Harbor Publishing

In Wet, a transient Chinese American model working in Singapore thirsts for the unattainable: fair labour rights, the extinguishing of nearby forest fires, breathable air, healthy habitats for animals, human connection. She navigates place and placelessness while observing other migrant workers toiling outdoors despite the hazardous conditions. In photographs and language shot through with empathy and desire, Wet unravels complexities of social stratification, sexual privation, and environmental catastrophe.Purchase from Talonbooks

One and Half of You is a memoir that begins with the author’s growing up biracial on rural Vancouver Island. Not fitting in at school, she turns for comfort to her brother, who is in many ways the opposite of her. Only when she moves from the Island to the mainland does she meet another like her. Through sinuous language, risk, and surprising humour, this hybrid work explores sibling and romantic love, and the complexities of being a biracial person looking for completion in another. Includes links to recordings of three songs.Purchase from Talonbooks

For years, she watched his music videos and interviews. Long before they met, she felt a kinship to his deeper self, and knew that one day they’d come together. She doesn’t tell him how, in order to create, she needs to break beautiful things.Purchase The Giftby Leanne Dunic & the Deep Cove
Includes free download of the full albumIllustrations by Gabrielle Bates

In To Love the Coming End, a disillusioned author obsessed with natural disasters and ‘the curse of 11’ reflects on their own personal earthquake: the loss of a loved one. A lyric travelogue that moves between Singapore, Canada, and Japan, this debut from Leanne Dunic captures what it’s like to be united while simultaneously separated from the global experience of trauma, history, and loss that colour our everyday lives.Canadian Version
US Version

LEANNE + YOUR WRITING

Leanne is a writing teacher, mentor, and editor. With a decade of experience, she works with new and established writers on all types of writing projects. She is particularly interested in helping writers find the most suitable form and voice for their projects. Please contact her to discuss your writing goals.Contact: leanne.dunic[at]gmail.com

Leanne is such a fantastic manuscript consultant, I sought out her services multiple times (in both fiction and playwriting). The stories I showed her had an experimental structure, and she showed me ways to keep that playful spirit in the work while clarifying the murky bits. I’d highly recommend Leanne: she understood my vision for my work and helped me achieve it.
– Maria Reva, author of Good Citizens Need Not Fear

Leanne is a thoughtful and intuitive writing mentor who encourages your writing process by meeting you where you’re currently at. Building on the strength of what’s there on the page, while contributing ideas to what could be improved, Leanne is both a generous and rigorous reader.
– Matea Kulic, author of Paperwork

I have worked with Leanne Dunic on several texts – poetry and prose – and have found her insighhts precise yet expansive. She haas an uncanny sense of asking the ‘right’ questions. She’s based in Canada and I’m in Aotearoa New Zealand, but when we’re discussing texts, there’s no distance.
– Madeleine M Slavick, author/ photographer of Fifty Stories Fifty Images

I've taken plenty of professional training on coaching, particularly in the areas of giving and receiving feedback, and Leanne is one of the best coaches I've ever had. Her approach is an exceptional blend of realistic and optimistic, grounded and expansive. She helped me see how malleable the shape of ideas can be, and to experiment with confidence. I highly recommend her for writers at all levels of their craft, or any artist wanting to explore and nurture their creative curiosity.
– Kristi Wong

Sometimes I get so locked into my vision for a given piece that a kind of imaginative sclerosis sets in. When that happens, I’m happy to know Leanne, who’s so gifted at spotting the possibilities in a work-in-progress and helping me get out of my own way so that the art that’s struggling to emerge can.
– Tom Gammarino, author of King of the Worlds

Leanne’s edits will bring out the full potential of your stories, whether that means cutting extraneous prose, idiosyncranizing your characters, or developing emerging themes.
– Bernard Grant, author of Fly Back at Me

Leanne helped me transform my manuscript from an unruly first draft to a publishable work. She is a master wordsmith, a true storyteller. I highly recommend her for all stages of your writing journey.
– Dhana Musil