Sky Gilbert, Professional Mentor, Playwriting Program

Sky Gilbert is a poet, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, theatre director, and drag queen extraordinaire. He was co-founder and artistic director of Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre — one of the world’s largest gay and lesbian theatres — from 1979 to 1997. He has had more than 40 plays produced, and written 9 critically acclaimed novels and three award winning poetry collections. He has received three Dora Mavor Moore Awards as well as the Pauline McGibbon Award, The Silver Ticket Award — and the ReLit Award for his novel An English Gentleman. There is a street in Toronto named after him: ‘Sky Gilbert Lane.’ His second book about Shakespeare — Shakespeare Lied — was just published by Guernica Editions in 2024. His 10th full length novel The Blue House is being published by Cormorant, in 2025. Dr. Gilbert is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph (where he taught theatre and creative writing from 1998-2022).