Laurence Miall mainly grew up in England, but also spent some of his childhood in Wales, Scotland and Illinois, USA. He lived in Edmonton, Alberta from 1989 to 2007, and most of his fiction is set there. He now lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Laurence completed a degree in Political Science and French at the University of Alberta in 2001. His interests were Canadian politics and foreign policy, but he also had a rather tangenital love affair with Dostoyevsky. He devoted his greatest academic energies for comparative literature, in which he wrote several adoring essays about the Russian novelist.
After graduating, he became a researcher, then a communications coordinator, for the Alberta Liberal Opposition. His daily living consisted of trying to find ways to frustrate, contradict and, by any means possible, thwart the will of the ruling Conservative government. Because the Alberta Liberal Opposition then held even fewer seats in the legislature than it does today, this proved a very difficult task. But it was a lot of fun drafting speeches, news releases, and questions for Question Period, and accusing the government of “tax by stealth” and “drifting toward a crisis like the Titanic.”
In 2004, Laurence secured a seven-month contract with the Alberta Teachers’ Association. He prepared news releases, organized conferences, and wrote articles for the association’s newspaper.
Laurence has also worked for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, CHUM Television, and the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission , where he was a writer/editor. He has freelanced extensively for The Edmonton Journal - Edmonton’s largest daily with a circulation of about one million. He was until recently a graduate student in communications at Concordia University but is on a leave of absence due to time and money constraints. He is only a few credits from finishing! Currently he is earning his keep working in communications and freelance writing.
Laurence Miall writes extensively and has completed a short novel called Blind Spot, as well as numerous short stories. His story, “The Comforts of Life,” was a semi-finalist in the 2008 Summer Literary Seminars contest, sponsored by Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia. Along with his freelance writing, Laurence also regularly updates the Ministry of Misinformation (M.o.M.) - a serving of absurdity and satire.
Below, you can see what Laurence looks like when he dresses up to go to a party.
(Credit: Lauren Jane Heller. November 2007)
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