Cecily Carver

About

I was born in a small mountain town in British Columbia, Canada, and now live in Seattle with my dog Walter. My short fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review and Blue Earth Review. I write a newsletter about books and culture, The Amateur, and work as a Software Engineer for Grammarly.

Past lives include working as a blogger and chief twitterer for the Canadian Opera Company, joining experimental indie opera company Against the Grain Theatre, co-directing the feminist video game organization Dames Making Games (DMG) Toronto, and building driving and traffic-related features for Google Maps.

Fiction

"The Good Sport." The Kenyon Review, Summer 2023.

"In Which a Dog Remains a Dog." Blue Earth Review, Spring 2023.

Essays and Articles

"Method Singing." VAN Magazine, June 2022

My favorite pieces from my newsletter, The Amateur:

"Disappearing Time at the End of the World" (about Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain)

"Theatrical Wealth Lasts, at Most, Three Generations" (about The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway)

"Tár, Furtwängler, Complicity" about the movie Taking Sides

"On Solitude" (about Coppola's The Conversation)

"Avoiding the Question" (about Richard Ford's The Sportswriter)

This self-published piece from 2013 was widely read, and cited in Clive Thompson's Coders:

"Things I wish someone had told me when I was learning how to code."

Working, Education, Volunteering

Software Engineer and Tech Lead, Grammarly (2022-present)

Senior Software Engineer, Google (Maps, driving, traffic, navigation) (2014-2022)

Co-director, Dames Making Games (DMG) Toronto (2012-2015)

Associate Manager, Digital Marketing, Canadian Opera Company (2010-2013)

Digital Marketing, Against the Grain Theatre (2011-2015)

Board Member, Emerald City Music (2016-present)

I hold a Bachelor's Degree in Computing Science from the University of Alberta.