Charlotte Mendel, Writer
February 2026
Charlotte Mendel was born in Nova Scotia and spent many years travelling around the world, working in France, England, Turkey, Israel and India. She is the author of Turn Us Again (Roseway/Fernwood, 2013), which won the H.R. Percy Novel Prize, the Beacon Award for Social Justice, and the Atlantic Book Award in the Margaret and John Savage First Book category. Her second novel, A Hero (Inanna Publications, 2015) was shortlisted for the 2016 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing and was a Finalist in the 2016 International Book Awards in the General Fiction category. Charlotte’s first YA novel, “Reversing Time” was published by Guernica Editions in 2021 and her latest, a literary fiction book entitled “A Hostage”, was published by Inanna in 2023.
In addition to her writing, Charlotte is a parent, a farmer, a teacher and an environmental activist. She currently facilitates a Climate Action Game at schools, universities and environmental organizations to spread awareness about the climate crisis. For the past 25 years Charlotte has lived in Nova Scotia with twenty chickens, four goats, three sheep, two cats, two children, one husband and thousands of bees. She recently left her partner of 32 years and is in transit—her first destination is Europe.
Charlotte is the recipient of the 2026 Stegner Grant for the Arts. The grant is made possible by the generosity of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation and the Saskatchewan Arts Board. The grant provides the recipient with $500 and one month free residency.