I was published by the City of Vancouver in a magazine entitled ‘A Hurricane in the Basement’. I am also one of ten writers chosen to have their work inscribed on a story stone; my stone sits on Kits Point at the foot of Arbutus. The piece is entitled 'Vancouver in the Rain'.
I have been teaching creative writing at Langara College since 2003, and to intimate groups in my private writing studio since June 2012. I have also taught at Roundhouse Community Centre and at Hycroft Manor. I also had a wonderful experience teaching a workshop entitled "Writing into the Light" in Southern Spain at the grounds of an old mill in April 2016, hosted by Flavour of Spain.
I believe that everyone has important stories to tell, and that we all have the innate ability to tell them. My teaching method has been carefully honed to inspire, to build confidence, and to show us that we all have a writer lurking within, who will be encouraged to emerge within a safe and welcoming space.
I emigrated to Canada from Kenya in 1975. I lived in Calgary for six years before moving to Vancouver in 1981. I worked as a waitress/bartender for many years, before becoming a legal secretary. After taking a year sabbatical to travel to New Zealand, Thailand and England, I returned to Vancouver to work in a number of private business ventures, including writing descriptive video for television shows. I currently work full-time as an administrator for a mid-size construction company, and pursue my passion for teaching on evenings and weekends.
My interests include reading, writing, travel, music, mysticism, and cats. You will invariably find one or more cats in the writing studio.
“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”
— Ray Bradbury
“No matter how ‘fictional’ the account of these writers, or how much it was a product of invention, the act of imagination is bound up with memory. You know, they straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for houses and liveable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places. “Floods” is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory – what the nerves and the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our “flooding”.
— Toni Morrison