Anna Camilleri

Photo: R. Kelly Clipperton

BIOGRAPHY

Anna Camilleri has been hailed as a “tough, visceral and funny” (Atlanta Journal Constitution) “cultural agitator and fab femme (Now Magazine). She has performed for the last fifteen years in Canada and the US, and was a founding performer with “notorious Taste This” (Xtra), a collaborative performance troupe that toured extensively from 1995 to 2000. Camilleri is the playwright/performer of one-woman show Sounds Siren Red, author of critically acclaimed I Am a Red Dress: Incantations on a Grandmother, a Mother and a Daughter (Arsenal Pulp Press), editor of Red Light: Superheroes, Saints and Sluts (Arsenal Pulp Press), co-author of Boys Like Her:Transfictions (Taste This, Press Gang Publishers), and co-editor of Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity (Arsenal Pulp Press). Her writing has been described as “potent, fresh, and imbued with powerful imagery” (Quill and Quire); “brave and necessary” (Books in Canada); “provocative and evocative” (Xtra); “genuine and unflinching,” and as “speaking eloquently of the need for civil rights for all of us” (Lambda Book Report).

Anna has contributed to several community arts projects as an artist-facilitator, curated numerous performance programs for Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, the Sexual Diversity Studies Program at the University of Toronto, and the Inside Out Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, and led workshops on various as aspects of cultural production. She is also a mosaic artist with two large-scale public artworks to her credit. She is founding Artistic Co-Director of Red Dress Productions, a registered not-for-profit company rooted in a mandate to create original, socially germane performance, and community-based works. Anna is at work on a novel, a performance work, and a documentary for CBC radio 1. Her online domain is annacamilleri.com.

GRANTS

2008 Ontario Arts Council: Writers’ Reserve Program (Cormorant Books).
2008 Ontario Arts Council: Writers’ Reserve Program (Diaspora Dialogues).
2008 Toronto Community Foundation Vital Ideas Grant in association with CTYS for Artist Residency with Gender Play Theatre Project.
2007 Ontario Arts Council: Writers’ Reserve Program (Second Story Press).
2007 Ontario Arts Council: Writers’ Reserve Program (Sumach Press).
2007 Ontario Arts Council: Writers’ Reserve Program (Descant).
2007 Toronto Arts Council: Grants to Writers Program.
2007 Ontario Arts Council: Writers’ Reserve Program (Cormorant Books).
2007 Ontario Arts Council: Writers’ Reserve Program (Coach House Books).
2007 Ontario Arts Foundation: Arts Education Initiative, Red Dress Productions (Artistic Co-Directors Anna Camilleri and Tristan R. Whiston) in association with the 519 Community Centre.
2007 Ontario Arts Council: Theatre Program, Red Dress Productions.
2007 Toronto Arts Council: Theatre Program, Red Dress Productions.
2007 Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal Foundation, Red Dress Productions.
2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 Ontario Arts Council: Artists in the Community Program in association with CTYS for Artist Residency with Gender Play Theatre Project.
2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 Toronto Arts Council: Community Art Program in association with CTYS for Artist Residency with Gender Play Theatre Project.
2006 Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal Foundation, Red Dress Productions.
2005 Ontario Trillium Foundation, Red Dress Productions in association with the Toronto Rape Crisis Center for the Acting Out Against Violence Project.
2005 Ontario Arts Council: Artists in the Community Program.
2005 Toronto Arts Council: Community Arts Program.
2005 Laidlaw Foundation: Performing Arts Program.
2005 Toronto Arts Council: Theatre Program, Red Dress Productions.
2003 Canada Council for the Arts: Writing Program.
2002 Canada Council for the Arts: Theatre Program.
1999 Toronto Arts Council: Grants to Writers Program.
1999 Canada Council for the Arts: Inter-Arts Program, Taste This.

HONOURS

2008 Boys Like Her: Transfictions and Brazen Femme: Queering Feminity selected for inclusion in the LGBT Canadian literature in English collection at the Fisher Rare Books Library at University of Toronto.

2006 IPPY Award (Independent Publishers Awards) Nomination: Red Light: Superheroes, Saints, and Sluts (Anna Camilleri, ed., Arsenal Pulp Press)

2005 Lambda Literary Award Nomination: Red Light: Superheroes, Saints, and Sluts (Anna Camilleri, ed., Arsenal Pulp Press)

2003 Lambda Literary Award Nomination: Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity (Anna Camilleri and Chloë Brushwood Rose, eds., Arsenal Pulp Press)

1999 Now Magazine Best-Seller List: Boys Like Her: Transfictions, Taste This.

1999 Artistic Achievement Award: Xtra West Magazine, Taste This.

1999 American Library of Congress Literary Award Nomination: Boys Like Her: Transfictions, Taste This.

1999 ForeWord Magazine Literary Award: Boys Like Her: Transfictions, Taste This.

1996 Montreal World Film Festival Honourable Mention Award + Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival Honourable Mention Award: No Such Thing (as bad girls), Director/Writer.

PERFORMANCES & READINGS (selected)

2008 Little Sister’s Bookstore author reading. Vancouver, B.C.
2008 Lakehead University feature performance. International Women’s Day programming presented by the Gender Issues Centre and the Literature Program. Thunder Bay, Ontario.
2008 Never Man’s Land cast member (Red Dress Productions). Full production at Alchemy Theatre. Toronto, Ontario.
2007 Exposure: Edmonton’s Queer Arts and Culture Festival, Fatale Program curated by TL Cowan. Latitude 53 Gallery. Presented by Exposure and the University of Alberta’s Literature Program. Edmonton, Alberta.
2007 University of Regina feature performance presented by the Women’s Centre. Regina, Saskatchewan, Ontario.
2007 York University, presented by the Centre for Women and Trans People. Toronto, Ontario.
2007 Metro Theatre feature performance of Sounds Siren Red (Victoria Women’s Sexual Assault Centre 25th Anniversary Programming). Victoria, B.C.
2007 Get Your Lit Out: A Night of Readings. A Space Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.
2007 The L Word: Queer Women in Leadership Forum at the University of Toronto.
2006 Sounds Siren Red performancetour to 12 Ontario communities.
2006 Sounds Siren Red (Red Dress Productions). Full production at Alchemy Theatre. Toronto, Ontario.
2005 Venus Envy reading. Ottawa, Ontario.
2005 University of Michigan feature performance. Sponsored by the LGBTQ Student Affairs for National Coming Out Day programming. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
2005 University of British Columbia feature performance. Presented by the Equity Office and Access and Diversity. Vancouver, British Columbia.
2005 Oratrix Productions feature performance. Seattle, Washington.
2005 Center for New Words feature performance. Boston, Massachusetts.
2005 Queen’s University Sounds Siren Red performance presented by the department of Women’s Studies, Sociology and English. Kingston, Ontario.
2005 Wilde About Sappho author tour presented by the Canada Council for the Arts: National Library Archives in Ottawa, Vancouver Public Library (Central Branch), and University of Guelph.
2005 Simon Fraser University, Sounds Siren Red performance. Presented by sponsored by Out On Campus, SFPIRG, Women’s Studies Grad Caucus and the Department of Women’s Studies. Vancouver, British Columbia.
2005 University of Victoria, Sounds Siren Red performance. Presented by the Department of Women’s Studies. Victoria, British Columbia.
2004 Sounds Siren Red (Red Dress Productions), workshop production at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre. Toronto, Ontario.
2004 Seen and Heard Festival feature performance. Atlanta, Georgia.
2004 Queen's University feature performance and artist talk. Women’s Studies Department: Sex, Gender and Popular Culture course. Kingston, Ontario.
2004 Queen's University feature performance. OutWrite! A Queer Lit Review. Kingston, Ontario.
2004 IV Lounge author reading. We Still Got Words literary series, Toronto, Ontario.
2003 Harmony Gallery feature reading. Los Angeles, California.
2003 National Queer Arts Festival feature performance. San Francisco, California.
2003 York University feature performance. Toronto, Ontario.
2003 George Brown College Sisterfest performance. Toronto, Ontario.
2002 Buddies In Bad Times Theatre feature performance in Strange Sisters Revenge of the
Mudflap Girl. Toronto, Ontario.
2001 York University feature performances: Atkinson College and Glendon College, Women’s Studies Department. Toronto, Ontario.
2000 Mayworks Festival for Working People in The Arts feature performance. Toronto, Ontario.
1999 Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Taste This’ Too Close To Fire performance. Toronto, Ontario.
1999 Saw Gallery, Taste This’ Too Close To Fire performance, Ottawa, Ontario.
1999 University of Winnipeg, Taste This’ Too Close To Fire performance presented by the Margaret Laurence Endowment Fund in Women’s Studies Speakers and Performers Series. Winnipeg, Manitoba.
1999 Catalyst Theatre, Taste This’ Too Close To Fire performance. Edmonton, Alberta.
1999 Green Fools Society Theatre, Taste This’ Too Close To Fire performance, Calgary, Alberta.
1999 Grunt Gallery Live At The End of The Century Performance Series, Taste This’ Too Close To Fire performance. Vancouver, British Columbia.
1999 Firehouse Interstate Cultural Center, Taste This’ Too Close To Fire performance. Portland, Oregon.
1998 The University of Alberta, Taste This’ Boys Like Her: Transfictions performance, Edmonton, Alberta.
1998 The University of British Columbia, Taste This’ Boys Like Her: Transfictions performance, Vancouver, British Columbia.
1997 The Luna Sea Performance Project, Taste This’ The Beggar’s Feast performance, San Francisco.