Hollay Ghadery explores topics of mental health and her bi-racial identity as a woman of Iranian and British Isles descent in her memoir Fuse (MiroLand/Guernica Editions, 2021). She earned a BAH in English literature from Queen’s University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Ghadery’s fiction, poetry and non-fiction has been published in a variety of literary journals. She was one of three editors of the anthology Speech Dries Here on the Tongue: Poetry on Environmental Collapse and Mental Health (Guelph: Porcupine’s Quill, 2025) Ghadery lives in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario.
Poetry
Rebellion Box
Regina, SK: Radiant Press, 2023.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
This explosive debut collection pushes against the limitations of gender roles, race, bodies and minds, and explores our insignificance and impotence in the universe. The concept of otherness afforded by a marginalized and neurodivergent perspective is brilliantly represented in this book.
Fiction
The Unravelling of Ou
Windsor, ON: Palimpsest Press, 2026.
forthcoming Jan. 2026
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Moving on is hard. Even harder when it’s from a make-believe friend—someone, or in this instance, some thing—who’s been your strongest source of support. On what should be one of the happiest days ever, the day her granddaughter is born, Minoo is faced with a terrible choice: make a clean break from her constant companion, a sock puppet named Ecology Paul, or lose her daughter and granddaughter, and maybe all of the people she loves. On an emotional drive home from the hospital, Ecology Paul shares the story of how Minoo got to this point, recalling Minoo’s early teenage pregnancy in Iran, her exile to Canada, her questions about her sexuality, and how a ragtag sock puppet came to her when she desperately needed to be seen. Full of imagination, whimsy and heart, The Unravelling of Ou follows Minoo’s struggles to justify the puppet’s existence and untangle herself from her dependence on it, and reconnect with the people she loves.
Fiction (Short stories)
Widow Fantasies
Guelph: Gordon Hill Press, 2024.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Fantasies are places we briefly visit; we can’t live there. The stories in Widow Fantasies deftly explore the subjugation of women through the often subversive act of fantasizing. From a variety of perspectives, through a symphony of voices, Widow Fantasies immerses the reader in the domestic rural gothic, offering up unforgettable stories from the shadowed lives of girls and women.
Non-fiction (Memoir)
Fuse
Toronto: MiroLand/Guernica Editions, 2021.
e-book (Access restricted to members of the university community)
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Drawing on her own experiences as a woman of Iranian and British Isle descent, writer Hollay Ghadery dives into conflicts and uncertainty surrounding the bi-racial female body and identity, especially as it butts up against the disparate expectations of each culture. Painfully and at times, reluctantly, Fuse probes and explores the documented prevalence of mental health issues in bi-racial women.
Links
Hollay Ghadery personal website
Publisher Gordon Hill Press
Publisher Guernica Editions
Publisher Palimpsest Press
Publisher Radiant Press