Writer and Story Teller
Writer and Story Teller
As a parent of a neurodivergent child, I have questioned what’s a normal life. Different for everyone, it turns out. That’s what I write about. Following a career of writing for others and community advocacy, I now write about inclusion and diversity and how visions of a normal life collide with reality.
My manuscript-in-progress is provisionally titled “Jess and the Banshee”. Future readers may follow my experience of raising a neurodiverse child as I question underlying assumptions that there’s a “correct” way to exist and interact with the world. Or they may see humour in my failed attempts to curate a Martha Stewart-esque (minus the jail time) perfect life for my family (life partner, two children) and friends while I journey the ups and downs of parenting a differently-abled son.
Always Learning
Trained at the Saskatchewan School for the Arts and Simon Fraser University’s Department of English, I’m currently a creative nonfiction student at SFU’s “The Writers’ Studio” and recipient of their 2023-24 “Emerging Writer” Scholarship. A previous version of myself studied political science, then business at graduate school. I guess I like school.
My creative nonfiction, poetry and fiction have been published in online and print journals and Canadian newspapers. The work has been described as “engaging, with a challenging balance of authority and self-awareness” with a “gentle, kind and curious sensibility”. You can see for yourself through some of these links.
When I’m not writing, I blog about family travel and life (still writing, I guess), knit, garden…generally make stuff in the Martha Stewart method.
Select Writings
“My Son is Different than Most, Sometimes Strangers Won’t Let Me Forget”
Toronto Globe and Mail, 4/5 July 2023.
Someone called the police on me today. I am accustomed to apologies in the gazes of strangers. I’m used to the startled reactions of strangers. In public spaces, I’ve become inured to the annoyed reactions to my son’s lack of social graces. I’ve got two decades of experience with both the overly solicitous comments or wide berth that people steer around my 21-year-old neurodivergent son and myself. I have a strong Teflon coating over the bubble of us.
But involving the police was new…
“Thirtysomething Leavings.”
Microfiction Monday Magazine May 8, 2023.
“Remembering Muriel.”
Microfiction Monday Magazine, May 15, 2023
“We’ve Just Met, and I Adore You.”
Microfiction Monday Magazine, May 29, 2023
“What I’ve Learned About the Compassion of Children.”
Toronto Globe and Mail, 17 September 2012.
“Rondeau. All That There Is.”
The Lyre: A Literary Journal,13, Fall 2022, p. 17.
“Pass the Kleenex, There’s a Hog-Nosed Shrew Rat”
The Mantelpiece Literary Magazine, November, 2023
Club G
A warmhearted look at compassion in action on a Canadian elementary school playground. What a group of Grade Four students thought they were organizing for their classmate turned out to have lasting social and emotional impacts on everyone that no one expected.
Contests
“A Bride, A Rat and a Couple of Good Men,”
North Shore Writers’ Association 2012 Contest Winner
“It Can Always Be Worse,”
Creative Nonfiction Collective 2022 Contest Short List
“r/Repeat i/Imagining, y/You k/Kindness,”
Creative Nonfiction Collective 2024 Contest Long List
“Closet Full of Monsters,”
Creative Nonfiction Collective 2023 Contest Long List
“Better Not Tell You Now,”
Federation of BC Writers 2023 Nonfiction Contest Long List