Faculty of Arts & Science alumna Teresa Toten never expected to be an author. “That would be silly, fanciful and well, unrealistic,” she wrote on her website.
Today, when asked how many books she’s written, she pauses to check. “Twelve,” she says, laughing.
A dozen books, translations into just as many languages and several awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature in 2013 — all without ever having taken a university-level English course. Instead, she studied political science at U of T, earning her bachelor of arts in 1978 as a member of Trinity College. She returned to U of T for graduate school, earning her master of arts degree in 1979.
Pursuing a post-secondary education wasn’t easy at first, she recalls. Toten — whose parents immigrated to Toronto from Croatia — was the first in her family to attend university and didn’t know what to expect.
“The principal and vice-principals at Northern Secondary filled out the applications with me because I had no sense of anything,” she says.
Though the cost of university was daunting, donor support provided Toten with the additional financial aid she needed to enroll at U of T.
Once she arrived, it took time to find her footing. “Marks were easy for me in high school. Then I was in Robarts Library at midnight spinning my wheels. I just didn’t know how to study and do things efficiently.”
She was also simultaneously working full-time and playing on the basketball team. “I found the whole thing overwhelming. I wanted to quit.”
By second year, she had reworked her schedule and discovered a passion for political economy. “I figured out the rhythm. I had really great professors and loved the course topics. It took me well over a year, but I’d found home.”
After graduating, she spent a year as a broadcaster for Radio-Canada International in Montreal. She then moved to Ottawa and worked for Crown corporations that led projects such as the construction of new buildings for the National Gallery of Canada and the National Museum of Man — now the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
It wasn’t until Toten moved back to Toronto that writing crossed her radar by chance.
“In the basement of Mabel's Fables bookstore, they were doing classes for writing for children,” she says. “I’d never considered it before. I joined and by the end of the three hours, it was like a bolt of lightning. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And I've been doing it ever since.”
During those classes, she developed her first novel, The Onlyhouse, which was published in 1995. She’s since explored various topics and genres within young adult fiction — from a protagonist wrestling with obsessive compulsive disorder in The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B, to a psychological thriller set at New York’s Waverly School in Beware that Girl.
When she’s not writing, Toten leads presentations and workshops at schools and libraries for students of all ages. While COVID-19 has paused in-person gatherings, she’s participating in Zoom events, including a recent Toronto Public Library webinar where she shared her top 10 writing tips for teens.
Toten says that growing up as a child from an immigrant background, she didn’t think it was possible to turn her creative talents into a career. Her goal now is to help students explore their creativity.
“When I was a kid, we didn't have people like me going into schools,” she says. “Writers were dead people on a shelf. It never dawned on me to take an English class, for instance.
When I visit schools, I'm very aware of doors that are closed because some kids don't even know there are those doors. I really hope to do my bit, however small, to say this is possible.
And students are taking it to heart. Toten recently received letters from two readers whose high school she visited more than 15 years ago. They were so inspired by her books that they’re now working on film adaptions.
“The fact that a book I wrote moved kids so deeply — that’s the highlight,” she says. “It is extraordinary when you get these responses back from readers. They’re the big award.”
Toten believes anything is possible for students navigating university and career paths after graduation.
“Hang in there. Don’t give up. Make a pest of yourself. Stick your hand up and ask for help. U of T has a ton to offer, but students may not know those doors are there. Find the doors, knock on them and ask for advice.”