I was born and raised in the village of Lanark, ON, in the Ottawa Valley, and currently live in Victoria, BC with my bass-playin’ husband. I wear a few hats: writer, massage therapist, and teacher. My stories, poems and essays have been accepted for publication in numerous journals, including The Danforth Review, Little Fiction, The New Quarterly, The Malahat Review, Event, The Fiddlehead, The Dalhousie Review, PRISM International, Qwerty, Geist, Grain, Vallum, existere, The Rusty Toque, Boulevard, Canadian Living, and in the anthologies Poems from Planet Earth, Coming Attractions 07, This Place a Stranger and Women Behaving Badly.
My first collection of stories, The Jealousy Bone, was released in February, 2008, by Emdash Publishing. My second collection of short fiction, The Pull of the Moon, was published by Brindle & Glass in September 2014. The Rules of the Kingdom, my first book of poetry, was released with MQUP in January 2017, and my story, “The Expansion,” won the Rusty Toque chapbook competition in 2017. My third collection of stories, Meteorites, was published with Touchwood / B&G in June 2019. And, just announced: my second poetry collection, Whiny Baby, will be published in Spring 2024 with McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Recognition:
- 2020 Meteorites was longlisted for the ReLit Award.
- 2017 The Rules of the Kingdom, finalist for both the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award.
- 2016 My essay “It Not Only Rises, it Shines,” won the Edna Staebler Personal Essay contest.
- 2016 My story, “The Expansion,” won the Rusty Toque Chapbook competition.
- 2015 The Pull of the Moon won a Bronze Ippy Award and the Victoria Book Prize.
- 2014 The story “Damage,” published in Little Fiction, and in The Pull of the Moon, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
- 2014 The Pull of the Moon was named as one of The Globe and Mail’s Top 100 Books of 2014.
- Stories from The Pull of the Moon used in Camosun College Writing course curriculum. The Jealousy Bone has been used as part of Carleton University English course curriculum
- 2008 Shortlisted for The Rona Murray Award, CACGV.
- 2006 Writers’ Union Postcard Story competition, finalist.
- 2005 Shortlisted for CBC Literary Competition, Short Fiction category. (“Feeding on Demand,” since published in my first book, The Jealousy Bone)
- 2005 Federation of BC Writers Literary Writes Competition (Fiction), third prize.
- 2004 Writer’s Union Short fiction competition, finalist.
- 2004 Rona Murray Competition, second place, short fiction, CACGV.
- Monday Magazine’s 2003 Fiction contest, first place.