Eternity Martis Books in Order

Eternity Martis is a Toronto journalist, editor, teacher, and memoirist. She grew up in Toronto, then left home for university expecting the freedom and excitement that often come with starting over in a new place.

She studied English language and literature, as well as women's studies and feminist research, at Western University in London, Ontario. She also completed a certificate in writing there. Later, she earned a Master of Journalism from what is now Toronto Metropolitan University.

The path to her first book was a long one. While at Western, Martis began recording racist remarks and other incidents on scraps of paper and in notebooks, partly because people close to her struggled to believe what was happening. She first considered turning those notes into a blog, then tried a play, before writing a book proposal for a final writing project. During journalism school, she gathered the material into a manuscript.

Alongside her book work, Martis built a career in journalism and editing. She has worked at CBC, CTV, and Xtra, and her writing has appeared in Canadian and American publications. Her reporting often looks at race, gender, health, relationships, reproductive rights, and gender-based violence.

She pays close attention to the everyday language that can shape who gets heard and who gets dismissed.

Her memoir, They Said This Would Be Fun, draws on her undergraduate years at a predominantly white university. Martis writes about racism on campus and in the surrounding city, tokenism in classrooms and relationships, sexual violence, family tensions, and the hard work of finding people who understand what she is going through. The book also makes room for awkward parties, friendship, humour, and the messy business of becoming an adult.

The memoir is personal, but it also asks larger questions about who gets to feel safe and carefree at university. Martis connects individual moments to the systems that allow racism and sexism to be treated as isolated problems. Her survival-guide sections speak directly to students who are trying to make sense of similar experiences.

Published in 2020, They Said This Would Be Fun became a Canadian bestseller and won the 2021 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for nonfiction. It remains the central book in her bibliography, and a clear introduction to the concerns that run through her journalism.

Martis now teaches journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her work there includes reporting on Black communities and examining how newsrooms cover race, while her research interests also include memoir writing, anti-racist media, and violence affecting young women.

For Martis, putting a story on the record can be part of changing the conversation.