I am a multidisciplinary artist (including theatre, film, music, photography, and ceramic art) with a focus on the literary arts (author, editor), and co-owner/co-founder of House of Blue Skies, Alberta’s micro-publisher of several best-selling anthologies of poetry, art, and noir and co-editor of the online poetry journal blueskiespoetry.ca. I also host and produce CJSW Writer’s Block, a monthly radio program for book lovers. My collection of poetry, Contrary Infatuations, (Frontenac House, 2017) was short-listed for the Pat Lowther Award and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry in 2018.
Above all things I value inclusive community building, teamwork, integrity, and especially the magic that happens when passionate, creative people collaborate. I am an arts activist and an art-trepreneur. I freelance as an editor, story doula (writing coach), ghostwriter, and translator – and have been fortunate to support many incredibly talented Canadian writers in their work. It gives me tremendous joy to participate in the journey of a project – to witness a book evolving from rough draft to winning awards. In my non-creative work life, I am a Qualified Mediator and Engagement Expert at House of Blue Skies Consulting, a cooperative I founded with several brilliant women. We rely on the power of story in our authentic engagement and communications practices.
In a volunteer capacity, I founded, co-founded, nurtured, and/or developed several very successful arts initiatives including festivals, reading series, retreats, and workshops in northern Alberta between 1993 and 2010, including the long-running Reel Shorts Film Festival, the Wordspinner Literary Festival, and all-ages rock music festivals. I also served as the Performing Arts Chair for the Arctic Winter Games when it was hosted in Grande Prairie in 2010 and was the Culture Coach for Team Alberta North at the 2008 Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife, NWT. In Calgary I founded the RE:act Art & Community Together Society to provide a supporting role for Calgary’s inaugural Poet Laureate, and have organized and co-hosted many literary events throughout the City of Calgary since 2010.
I have served in critical leadership positions on boards for a variety of arts organizations, including the Writers Guild of Alberta, the Creative Nonfiction Collective, and the League of Canadian Poets and have led intensive board and policy development and organizational change initiatives.