Melanie Fishbane

I am a PhD candidate at Western University and holds an M.F.A. from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and an M.A. from Concordia University. I will be the 2027-2028 Visiting Scholar for the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island. I teach literature at George Brown College and write on gender, romance, and Jewish girlhood in children’s and young adult literature, specifically on Sydney Taylor, Laura Ingalls Wilder, L.M. Montgomery, Anne Frank, and Louisa May Alcott. My most recent articles are, “‘More Like Americans’: Sydney Taylor’s Queering of Historical Fiction Girls’ Series” in Beyond Nancy Drew: U.S. Girls’ Series Fiction in the Twentieth Century and an essay co-written with Dr. Caroline Jones, “Discovering Grace: Research Challenges in Finding the Lost Ingalls Sister.” My work is published in L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valleys: The Ontario Years 1911–1942, Reconsidering Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House and Beyond, the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies and L.M. Montgomery and Reading. My YA novel, Maud: A Novel Inspired by the Life of L.M. Montgomery, was shortlisted for the Vine Awards for the best in Canadian Jewish Literature