Varda Burstyn's career as a writer of non-fiction and as an independent scholar began in the early 1980s, after which her work appeared in numerous magazines, including Saturday Night and Mother Jones, in documentary films, in multiple series for CBC's national documentary program Ideas, and in scholarly journals and anthologies. Her non-fiction book, The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics and the Culture of Sport (University of Toronto Press 1999) was hailed as a groundbreaking work on sport and politics, and won the Book of the Year Award of the North American Society for the Study of Sport. Her first work of fiction, Water Inc., appeared to critical acclaim in Canada and the US in 2005.  Her wide ranging topics of interest have always been connected by a special emphasis on their political dimensions. A life-long environmentalist, she has written about many aspects of environmental crisis, the politics of science and technology, artificial reproduction and genetic engineering. As a cultural critic and political scholar she has written on sport and politics, pornography and censorship, and on government, the state, democracy and gender. An online archive of selected work at vardaburstyn.com provides access to many of her articles, in all fields. In addition to writing and consulting, she has taught film studies, lectured widely in her areas of specialization, and frequently appeared as a media commentator. Born in Israel and raised in Israel and Toronto, she has lived in Montreal and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, as well as in Cincinnati and Chicago. She now lives in Peterborough, Ontario. In addition to environmental health consulting, she writes extensively about chemicals and health, including for her blog and informational website, Dispatches from the Chemical Edge. She still hopes to complete a second novel, inspried by these themes and issues.