Draft:Jowita Bydlowska

Jowita Bydlowska (born September 26 1977 in Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish-Canadian writer and a journalist, who has published both works of fiction and nonfiction. She also worked as a ghostwriter. Her writing has been described as unapologetic, brave and powerful, and frank.

Biography
Bydlowska moved to Canada as a teenager without any English. She originally started writing as ways of communicating in the new language. She published her first story at 19 during her undergraduate psychology studies at Western University in London, Ontario. She moved to Toronto at 24 years old to earn her Masters at the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) where she now teaches. She published her first book, a memoir, Drunk Mom, to critical acclaim. She has since published three novels, and a number of short stories and essays. Her newest novel, Monster, comes out in September, 2024.

Memoir
Drunk Mom was published in 2013 by Doubleday Canada (HarperCollins Australia, 2013 and Penguin US, 2014). It describes Bydlowska's relapse after giving birth to her son at the age of 31. When it came out, the book was described as pushing at boundaries, horrifyingly and beautifully written, and "stylistically affecting because it refused embellishment, exposing the trials and tragedies of addiction for what they truly are." Lena Dunham said, "I read Drunk Mom with my jaw on the floor, which doesn't happen to me that often." Because of its subject matter, Bydlowska's memoir received a lot of negative attention in the beginning, which she commented on publicly on the 10th anniversary of its publication saying, "It wasn't my memoir that was revealing something that was wrong with the world. It was the reception that was the most telling." Drunk Mom has been optioned by Colombian actress and producer Marcela Mar of Ganas Producciones.

Fiction
Bydlowska's first novel, Guy, was published in 2016 by Buckrider Press (Wolsak and Wynn). Written in first-person from a male point-of-view, Guy was "a convincing portrait of the modern misogynist in a novel full of hilarious and disturbingly realistic detail". It has been compared to Brett Easton Ellis's American Psycho.

Bydlowska's second novel, Possessed, came out in 2012 with Rare Machines (Dundurn Press) and has been described as provocatively embracing Camus and blending Gothic horror elements. Possessed is "a novel that questions the current dating culture, and what it means to be possessed by someone who does not feel the same way." Possessed was nominated for the ReLit Award in 2023 and was picked as the CBC's Best Canadian fiction of 2022.

Bydlowska's third novel, Monster, comes out with Anvil Press in the fall of 2024.

Short Stories
Bydlowska is a prolific short-story writer whose work has been selected to be included in two Best Canadian Stories anthologies (2017, 2023 with Biblioasis).

Other Works
Bydlowska's work has appeared in the anthologies She's Shameless (Tightrope Books, 2009), Water (MIT Press, 2009), Women in Clothes (Penguin, 2014), Polished (Guernica Press, 2014).

Bydlowska is also an avid essayist and has written for a variety of publications – from Hazlitt to The Walrus to Salon magazine.

She often illustrates her own work.

Journalism
Bydlowska wrote a series of popular columns on mental health for the Toronto Star. She occasionally writes and publishes features, for various publications usually on the topic of mental health.

Interviews
"Putting Yourself Out There," Jowita Bydlowska: Drunk Mom with Steven Paikin for the Agenda.

"I don't want to have to apologise for my own desires. For women, there's a huge freedom in owning your own shit." A conversation with the writer Jowita Bydlowska,  Leah McLaren, Juvenescence November, 2022.

Personal life
Bydlowska has a son, Hugo, with the writer and editor, Russell Smith. She has been diagnosed with Bipolar 2. She is sober. She is a passionate advocate for mental health.