Hey. I’m a Toronto-based writer specializing in social justice, science and literature–so, writing about life, and writing about writing.
Please don't mind the crucifix--here I'm reading my completely heathen poetry at beautiful St. Anne's Church in Toronto.
I’ve worked for over a decade as a journalist, contributing to guardian.co.uk, Canadian Geographic, The Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, eye weekly, NOW magazine, FUSE, This Magazine, La Vanguardia, U of T Magazine, Spacing, Canadian Dimension, Our Times, High Times, OpenFile, Kiss Machine and many more. I’ve written about things like climate change activism in Bonn, homelessness in Toronto, Prozac and mental health, free trade agreements, corporate skullduggery, truffle oil, children’s books, marijuana, infectious disease, a floating Dutch abortion clinic, indigenous rights in Chiapas, the history of walking, and giant puppet protesters. I was also a columnist on global issues and social movements for Canadian Dimension magazine.
I don’t do a lot of journalism these days. Instead, I mostly help non-profit organizations that work on complex issues to tell their stories in a way that is elegant, engaging and clear. I do this–writing, editing, coaching and consulting–through Bleeding Heart Communications.
As well as writing non-fiction essays and writing about writing for Quill & Quire, the Globe & Mail, rabble.ca and others, I write and publish my own poetry and fiction. I read most recently at the Brockton Writers Series, and my most recent fiction escapade was writing 50,000 words towards a novel as a ‘winner’ of NaNoWrimo 2010.
I offer workshops in plain language to adults (I will be offering a course in authentic communication at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education’s Transformative Learning Centre Summer Institute in June 2011) and hope in the not-too-distant future to expand my workshop offerings to include creative writing and poetry in the school system, and creative writing for adults.
