RENATO GANDIA
Queer Filipino-Canadian writer of memory, migration, and desire.
Writing
Novels, memoir and short fiction exploring complicated relationships, faith, belonging and love.
Anatomy of Compersion
A 92,000‑word literary novel about a woman, her bisexual husband, and his lover—asking whether love can stretch wide enough to include someone else’s happiness.
Unpriesting
Unpriesting is a memoir about the life that waits on the other side of a vow you never took.
Anthologies & Beyond
Published, poems, short fiction & essays in Magdaragat, Yay Queer All II, Beyond the Concert Hall, and more.
From the blog
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What remains human?
This week, I found myself thinking about three seemingly unrelated things: a papal encyclical on artificial intelligence, a labour rally in Alberta, and a flight to Toronto for a literary award ceremony. On the surface, they have nothing to do with one another. One belongs to the Vatican. One belongs to politics. One belongs to…
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A small song for living between two worlds
When the ebook of finalists for the 2026 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award — one of Canada’s most celebrated prizes for emerging writers — was published, I found myself staring at the title of my portfolio on the Writers’ Trust website as if someone else had written it: Psalmody for the Estranged. Not because the title felt unfamiliar,…
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Small practical devastations
The Verdict: Review This performance of The Verdict feels less like a stage adaptation and more like a public reckoning. Produced by Vertigo Theatre and directed by Artistic Director Jack Grinhaus, the production transforms Barry Reed’s legal drama into something more unsettling than a legal thriller: a story about how institutions learn to protect themselves…
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A data leak is also a trust leak
Leadership during a breach is not measured by how quickly blame is redirected. It is measured by how clearly responsibility is understood. That distinction matters philosophically, not just politically. Blame is relational—it is something we assign outward, away from ourselves, toward others. Responsibility is something we carry inward. The word itself comes from the Latin…
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Unknown number
A couple of months ago, I was making plans for a week of working remotely in Vancouver with my husband. We were scrolling through accommodations, comparing prices, half-distracted in that way you are at the end of a workday, when my phone rang. It was around 5 p.m. An unknown number. Normally, I wouldn’t answer.…
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Hilom: what we carry, what carries us
We barely made it to Edmonton. There are drives that feel routine—measured in kilometres, coffee stops, the quiet rhythm of highway lines slipping past. And then there are drives like this one, where the road refuses to be taken for granted. It wasn’t the fog that made it dangerous, though there was fog—low and lingering,…
Gandia Media
Stories that Connect. Strategies that Deliver.
I help organizations craft clear, purposeful stories that connect with people and drive action. With nearly two decades of experience in journalism, government communications, and strategic storytelling, I know how to turn complexity into clarity. Let’s tell your story in a way that resonates.
About
Calgary‑based writer and communications professional. Former journalist, government spokesperson, and energy‑sector strategist. I write about memory, migration, queerness, and the complexity of love—and I help leaders make clearer, kinder decisions in public.
Published in Magdaragat and Beyond the Concert Hall. Currently finishing Anatomy of Compersion and revising my memoir Unpriesting.
Renato Gandia 