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Award-winning author Dean Jobb joins MFA faculty

March 15, 2016

dean_jobbWe are pleased to announce that award-winning author and journalist Dean Jobb will be joining the faculty of the University of King’s College Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program in Halifax.

Dean’s most recent book — his seventh — is called Empire of Deception: The Incredible True Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation. Published by New York’s Algonquin and HarperCollins Canada, it won the Chicago Writers Association 2015 Nonfiction Award and was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize, one of Canada’s most prestigious literary awards. Empire was also named as a Globe and Mail “Top 100 Book of the Year” and a National Post “Book of the Year.”

His earlier books have also won awards, including the Evelyn Richardson Literary Award and the Dartmouth Book Award for Nonfiction, as well as being shortlisted for the National Business Book Award and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Canadian True Crime book.

Dean, a widely recognized expert in Canadian journalism history, media law and investigative reporting techniques, spent 20 years as a reporter, editor and columnist for the Halifax Chronicle Herald before joining the faculty of the School of Journalism fulltime in 2004. He will continue to teach in the School’s journalism programs, as well as the MFA.

Dean will join Executive Director Don Sedgwick and Professor Stephen Kimber — along with professional writer-mentors Tim Falconer, Lorri Neilsen Glenn, David Hayes, Lori. A. May, Ken McGoogan, Kim Pittaway, Jane Silcott and Harry Thurston — to deliver the only creative nonfiction master’s program in Canada.

The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction degree is a joint offering of the University of King’s College’s School of Journalism and Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Graduate Studies.

During the two-year limited residency degree, students attend two intense summer residencies in Halifax. They also travel to Toronto and New York on alternating years for publishing-focused winter residencies, and work one-to-one with professional writer-mentors to develop their own book proposals and projects.

The program is currently accepting applications for its incoming class, which begins with a summer residency at King’s College in Halifax from July 31–August 13.

A limited number of student bursaries are available for new students. You can find more information about the program here.