Eternity Martis is a Canadian journalist and author from Toronto, Ontario. Her debut publication They Said This Would Be Fun: Race, Campus Life, and Growing up won the 2021 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for non-fiction.
Early life and education
Martis was born in 1993.[1] Growing up she enjoyed reading and writing, and in high school she worked at the school newspaper.[2] Martis went to the University of Western Ontario where she earned a double honours Bachelor of Arts (English Language and Literature and Women's Studies and Feminist Research) and a Certificate in writing.[3] She went on to study at Ryerson University where she completed a graduate degree in Journalism.[4] Martis identifies as a Black woman with mixed heritage; her father is Jamaican and her mother is of Pakistani origin.[1]
Career
Martis was a senior editor at Xtra Magazine.[4] Her writing focuses on issues surrounding gender and race.[4] In March 2020 she published her debut memoir, They Said This Would Be Fun: Race, Campus Life, and Growing up with McLelland and Stewart.[1] The book documents her experiences with racism, drawing on her time as a student at the University of Western Ontario.[5][1][6] In 2021 the book was awarded the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for nonfiction.[5] The title was selected by non-fiction judge Kamal Al-Solaylee.[5]
In addition to writing and publishing, Martis teaches journalism and has held various positions at Ryerson University in the School of Journalism.[7] She was the 2021 Asper Visiting Professor and Journalist-in-Residence at the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media at the University of British Columbia. Martis was the Simon Fraser University Library's 2022 Non-Fiction Writer in Residence, holding the post from January to April 2022.[8] In January 2022, it was announced that she would be joining the School of Journalism at Ryerson University in a tenure-track position beginning in July 2022.[8]
