Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos

Author · Journalist

Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos

Undercover in Montreal’s sweatshops. Reporting from India’s villages. Writing fiction about Montreal women.

Out of Bounds book cover

Latest book

Out of Bounds

Linked stories · 2023

Portrait of Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos

Author of five books of fiction and non-fiction, from The English Fact in Quebec to Out of Bounds. A former investigative reporter at The Montreal Star, she also taught journalism at Concordia.

Out of Bounds book cover

Newest · Fiction · 2023

Out of Bounds

Linked stories of Montreal women at the turning points of their lives, at home and abroad.

“Arnopoulos creates women who have unique and fascinating lives.”Anna Fuerstenberg, Montréal Serai
Saris on Scooters book cover

Non-fiction · 2010

Saris on Scooters

How microcredit is changing village India. Finalist, National Business Book Award.

“Well-documented, eminently readable and uplifting.”Maya Khankhoje, Herizons Magazine

About Sheila

A reporter first

The Montreal Star

As an investigative journalist, she worked underground in Montreal sweatshops and wrote about the exploitation of immigrant women.

Concordia University

For many years she taught journalism. She has reported from France, Greece, Tunisia, India, Switzerland and China.

Awards

Governor General’s Award, National Newspaper Award, Media Club of Canada Award, and several journalism prizes.

From the reporting for Saris on Scooters

A mayor. A seedkeeper. A radio host. A woman who built a factory from neem seeds.

Lakshamamma

Led a village self-help group that took small loans. Now mayor of Cherlapatelguda.

Anjamma

Seedkeeper. Made the desert bloom with microcredit loans for organic farming.

Narsamma

Runs a village radio station covering social and economic change.

Shammamma

Heads a women’s collective that presses neem-seed oil into organic pesticide.

Meet the women of Saris on Scooters →

Rereading Noel Mostert’s book Supership

In 1974 as a very junior reporter at The Montreal Star, some senior reporters alerted me to a two-part major piece of reporting by Noel Mostert in the New Yorker magazine.

Intensive Care

At a busy bus stop, a young woman with kindly brown eyes stepped forward.

The Ambulance

Denyse put her hand over mine. We were at the crowded deli, waiting for our smoked-meat sandwiches.