Taylor Marie Graham (she/her) is an award winning writer, theatre artist, and educator living in Cambridge, Ontario on Treaty 3, Haldimand Tract.

In summer 2021, Taylor’s play Post Alice premiered at the Here For Now Festival in Stratford. Currently, she is a PhD Candidate in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph and is teaching a first year theatre course at the University of Waterloo. This winter, Taylor also has articles coming out with Canadian Theatre Review and Canadian Literature. Plus, you can catch her at a few conferences across Canada chatting about her scholarly and creative work.

Taylor began writing plays, poetry, and short stories as a young child, splitting her time between the small Lake Huron community of Port Albert, Ontario, on the Huron Tract and Canada’s south-most border city of Windsor, Ontario, on the traditional territory of Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations.

Taylor’s love of telling stories is what brought her to study theatre, specifically playwrighting and directing, at York University in Toronto/Tkaronto. She established herself as a bright young talent early on when she was accepted into Tapestry New Opera‘s Librettist/Composer Lab. Her one act opera The Virgin Charlie, created with composer William Rowson and produced by Tapestry, was nominated for a Dora Award for Best Opera/Musical in 2009.

Governor general-winning playwright Judith Thompson has been a great mentor to Taylor over the years. Thompson named Taylor as the up and coming playwright to watch in Playwrights Guild of Canada’s The Playwright Applause campaign. She describes Taylor’s play Cottage Radio as, “a dynamic, complex, and very funny play with fabulous music set in beautiful and historic Goderich. Taylor Graham has written such rich and delicious characters, people who are familiar and yet presented in an utterly unique way. I am thrilled to see such a powerful play set in small town Ontario – true Canadiana, and yet, universal!”

Taylor’s writing has also been described as “arresting and funny” (Lynn Slotkin), “an uncommonly cool theatrical experience” (Mooney on Theatre), “charmingly twisted” (John Terauds, Toronto Star), “delivering notes of comedy, irony and real feeling” (John Kaplan, NOW Magazine), and “searingly written. . . a significant accomplishment!” (Bill Mandel).

Her latest play Post Alice was produced at the Here For Now Theatre Festival in Stratford, Ontario. Reviewer Lynn Slotkin says, “Taylor Marie Graham has written an arresting and funny play about women and their friendships, coping with a troubled past and supporting each other” (Read Full Review). Review Joe Szekeres notes, “‘Post Alice’ is one of those plays that needs to be discussed later to see how others respond to such fine work. Outstanding and true ensemble work” (Read Full Review). Christopher Hoile‘s 5 star review calls Post Alice “one of the most exciting new Canadian plays I’ve seen for some time . . . What is so masterful about Graham’s play is how in only an hour she uses the simple reunion of four friends to open up a contemplation of enormous themes . . . This is a profound, beautifully crafted play. I hope it has a long life after the Festival” (Read Full Review).