Amy Kenny is a Whitehorse-based writer and artist.
She currently acts as the editor of Up Here Business, where her work has been nominated for National Magazine Awards: B2B. When she was managing editor of Yukon, North of Ordinary, it won magazine of the year at the International Regional Magazine Association Conference. For her reporting with The Hamilton Spectator, she was named journalist of the year at the Ontario Newspaper Awards.
She has also worked as a producer and reporter for CBC. Her journalism has been featured in magazines including Up Here,Walrus and Explore, and she has written for various travel guides from National Geographic Book Publishing.
Her creative writing has appeared in The Antigonish Review, The Feathertale Review, The Humber Literary Review, The Maynard and more. She also published It’s Weird Up Here—a collection of illustrated stories about the North—with artist Tedd Tucker in 2025.
Hello,
I was in attendance at the recent Northern Stories session at Yukon University. It was so lovely to hear your readings – your wry humour is delightful.
I have been thinking about the night’s Q&A session on mentorship and getting started. I am a writer that is just starting to put my work out to contests and submissions and the Yukon Words open mic. I write nonfiction and poetry and personal essays about my creative practice on Substack.
I have a piece of writing – a poem – that I don’t know what to do with. I live on Bates Cres where, you may remember, a house exploded in 2023 and my husband is an RCMP officer who was first on the scene. The poem is largely about the aftermath of that experience (I have attached it here). I believe it may be too specific to submit to contests. Can you offer a bit of mentorship guidance, is there a publication that you would recommend reaching out to with a piece of work such as this? I would like to see if I can find a home for it before settling it into my Substack.
Thank you for your time.
Kelli Anderson
Hi Kelli – sorry, I just saw this! Thanks so much for coming to the reading. Do you want to email me at ameskenny@gmail.com?