Emily Pohl-Weary

Emily Pohl-Weary is a Canadian novelist and magazine editor.

Pohl-Weary's most recent book is a young adult novel, "Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl" (2013), about a musician who gets bitten by a vicious dog in Central Park and finds herself changing in unusual ways. Her previous books include Strange Times at Western High (2006), featuring zine-publishing teen sleuth Natalie Fuentes, who teams up with a computer hacker and a graffiti artist to solve crime at her Toronto high school. Her previous books include a collection of poetry, Iron-on Constellations (2005). Her first novel, A Girl Like Sugar, was published by McGilligan Books in 2004. It features a twenty-something girl haunted by her dead rock star boyfriend. She edited a critically acclaimed female superhero anthology, Girls Who Bite Back: Witches Mutants, Slayers and Freaks (2004).

In 2008, Emily founded the Toronto Street Writers, a free writing group for inner-city youth in the neighbourhood where she grew up. For three years, she led a weekly writing workshop for residents of Sagatay (Na-Me-Res), a long-term transitional home for First Nations, Metis and Inuit men in Toronto. Her writing workshops focus on writing skills, creative empowerment, learning tools for conflict-resolution, and drawing out participants' unique voices and stories.

She is the granddaughter of science fiction writers Judith Merril and Frederik Pohl. Her 2002 biography of Merril, Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril (Between the Lines Books), won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book in 2003 and was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award. Asimov's Science Fiction magazine said in a review: "Assembled from scraps, fragments, previously published essays, and polished manuscripts by Judith Merril's granddaughter, Emily Pohl-Weary has done a superhuman job."

For eight years, Pohl-Weary also published and wrote for Kiss Machine magazine, which ceased publication in 2008. She is a former editor of Broken Pencil.

She is married to Jesse Hirsh.