The series consists of correspondence, financial records, clippings, programmes, and other material, arranged by subject. Included are files on the publishers Bloomsbury Publishing, Nicholson Press, Piatkus Books, Soho Press, Somerville House and St. Martin's Press. These files include correspondence with the publishers and with agents, and include contracts for Through the Green Valley and Falling Angels. Other files relate to tours, awards, readings, Gowdy's teaching of creative writing and her work as an editor. There are files of fan letters, including several from the writer Kenneth Harvey and one from writer Stuart McLean. There is documentation on Gowdy's involvement in a performance series called Sexual Gothic, with writers Susan Swan and Eric McCormack; on her performance in a National Gallery production of Picasso's play, Desire Caught by the Tail, with poet Christopher Dewdney, artist Michael Snow, and others; and on her membership in the Society for the Preservation of Wild Culture, with art critic Gary Michael Dault, filmmaker Bruce MacDonald, and others. There are transcripts of two interviews, with Gowdy's manuscript corrections.
Other material includes textual records containing correspondence, memoranda, notes, and printed material. Among these files are ones on Gowdy's trips, including a notebook recording impressions of Africa and information about flora and fauna and documentation on an international writers' conference in Bogota, which Gowdy attended with Marni Jackson; correspondence inviting contributions from Gowdy from editors and publishers such as Michele Slung, Susie Bright, Amy Hempel (accompanied by many drafts of a poem by Gowdy), Graeme Gibson and James King; Gowdy's letters of support for students and other writers. Other files relate to the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council, including Gowdy's 1983 application outlining in detail her project for a historical novel as well as her report on the work later published as Through the Green Valley; events, honours and readings, including material on Gowdy's charitable work, her participation in the Toronto Technology, Entertainment and Design, or TEDCity, conference, PEN Canada (with Gowdy's extensive preparatory notes for her interview with filmmaker David Cronenberg) and New York's Festival of Canadian Authors. There is extensive material on Gowdy's publishers, including personal correspondence with her German publisher Antje Kunstmann and correspondence regarding the U.S. and British publication of Mister Sandman and We So Seldom Look on Love.
This series contains correspondence, clippings and promotional material for readings and a tribute to Mordechi Richler at the Harbourfront International Festival of Authors. Also includes notes for jury work (Giller and Toronto Film Festival), correspondence, notes, arrangements and a script for a Discovery channel documentary on elephants as well as correspondence and clippings concerning an article on the Toronto Zoo.
Series contains documents on the issue of Descant focusing on Gowdy, as well as files on Harper Collins UK and Harper Collins Canada containing correspondence, royalty statements, cover samples, page designs, agent correspondence, promotional material, and editorial correspondence.
Series also contains contact sheets of publicity shots of Gowdy and Dewdney, and photographs of the Giller Prize awards ceremony in 2002.