About Jack

Jack Stilborn lives in Ottawa, Canada, and writes fiction and short stories. The Tyranny of Good Intentions, his debut novel about love, death and a great deal of politics on a condominium board, is forthcoming from Chicken House Press (September 10, 2025).

He showed early promise with a comic story that made a cousin laugh so hard she threw up. He was then deflected by life as a policy research analyst (Parliament), intergovernmental affairs advisor (Ontario government) and public servant (Ottawa). He enjoys family life (Alex, Jessica, Christine and partner Linda), participating on volunteer boards and lots of reading, especially literary fiction and history.

In Case You Want More:

We live mostly in our heads. This inner life isn’t necessarily visible in what we do. For much of my life, daydreaming has been prominent, getting me into trouble from time to time for letting my mind wander. In my new capacity as an author of fiction, I can claim that this is serious professional work, demanding respect.

Interior life is hard to describe. Externally, I live a quiet and predictable life but, intellectually, I cultivate uncertainty and like to challenge my own thinking. Music and improvised stories are part of the stream. The world is a complex place, endlessly fascinating, both more terrible and more beautiful than I could ever have imagined.

Youth: I was born in the City Hospital, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When I was a boy, I pretended to be a car (usually a Chrysler product), but kept this secret. A Grade 4 story told of being swallowed by a dinosaur and climbing into its Eustachian tube. This was followed, in Grade 12, by a story about God returning to inspect the planet He had created, and being scathingly critical of the Saskatchewan educational system in particular. These imaginings, along with a small handful of friends, helped me cope with a world in which I was too uncoordinated to succeed at sports.

Young Adulthood: At the University of Saskatchewan, I equivocated between English literature and political science. At Oxford University, I continued this ambivalence by studying politics and philosophy but attending, among others, Richard Ellman’s wonderful lectures on James Joyce. On a summer trip to Paris, I began writing a novel which I rapidly realized was a crime against literature. At Western in London, Ontario, I wrote a doctoral dissertation on the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville (concepts of revolution). I also benefited from several excellent professors (special thanks to Frederick Barnard and Richard Vernon), read literature in my spare time, wrote most of another extremely bad novel and got my feet wet in university teaching. At Western, I also met Linda, my life partner to-be.

Later adulthood: After several not very pleasant interludes in the federal public service, I found my major career as a research analyst in the Library of Parliament. There, I advised MPs and committees on issues including federalism and parliamentary government. As I reached age fifty, my mid-life crisis arrived, exactly on cue. After being tempted by slender pilates teachers and cars that I couldn’t get into, I opted instead to join the Ontario public service. It didn’t go especially well. After returning to Ottawa and resuming my previous work, on Sunday mornings I began yet another novel, this time an epistolary satire about the world of work. Family members remained tolerant, then and more recently. I am grateful to have these people in my life.

Even later adulthood: I now divide my time among reading (voracious but slow); writing and participating in a Canadian Authors Association writers’ group; activities such as kayaking, cycling and cross-country skiing; volunteer board work and contributing to the Ouroborian Book Society, a non-fiction book club that I and several friends launched in 2013. I love the sound of laughter and I like to think that my writing offers some laughs as well as, occasionally, things to think about. Perhaps even questions that can make us uncomfortable and enrich our thinking.