On fresh spring days like this one, Debra Anderson’s mother would have to force her to go outside and play. The self-described bookworm was always reading or pestering her friends to read the stories she had written.

Following her passion, she eventually joined York’s Creative Writing program where studied with  notable authors Susan Swan and Richard Teleky. She joined a writing group called “The Stern Writing Mistresses”, which included Caitlin Fisher and Chloe Brushwood-Rose, also alumni and now professors at York. This group helped Anderson develop her writing voice and the pieces that would eventually become Code White, her first novel.

Anderson recently returned to York to discuss Code White as a guest of the Canadian Writers In Person series.

Surprisingly, she wrote the novel piece by piece, in a non-linear fashion. It was, she revealed, “completely terrifying” to not know where the story was going, but it was also exciting and ultimately more rewarding for her.

Written in the form of journal entries, Code White explores the experience of Alex, a woman who is locked inside a mental institution. Reading her journal gives you get an unfiltered view of Alex’s thoughts and feelings, which are often sharply humorous and openly sexual. These elements were important to Anderson because she wanted to show that “life and desire don’t stop when you get sick.” Sharing in Alex’s struggles in the microcosm of the mental institution may have you reexamining your definition of “normal” in our society.

Anderson has won awards for her work as a writer, playwright and filmmaker. She also organizes and promotes Get Your Lit Out, a Toronto reading series that promotes local female authors.

York’s Canadian Writers in Person series is free and open to the public.

By Chris Cornish