• Employment

1981-1992 Farmer
1982-2009 Self-employed Writer
1985-2009 Primary care-giver to my children
1987- School Workshop Leader in Creative Writing
1995-2001 Columnist and Reporter, 100 Mile Free Press
1996-2002 Community Creative Writing Instructor, University College of the Cariboo
2000-2002 Webmaster, The League of Canadian Poets

• Education

1980 B.A. Creative Writing, The University of Victoria
1984-1991 Classical Greek Language and German Language, University of Waterloo
2005-2007 MFA in Creative Writing, the University of British Columbia

•Publications

1980 Six Poets of British Columbia
1982 Winter
1986 Eleusis
1989 A Delicate Fire
1993 In the Presence of Ghosts
1993 Out of the Interior: the Lost Country
1994 Iodine, or A Visit to Jake’s Kero Confectionary During the Elks’ Rodeo Parade, 1963
1995 Dancing With My Daughter
1998 Kazoo: The Psalm at the End of the Song
1998 Taking the Breath Away
1998 The Blue Mouth of Morning
1999 Fusion
2000 Carnival
2000 Tom Thomson’s Shack
2001 Peyote, or My Friend the Indian (trans)
2001 On the Couch of Dr. Daydream: Shakespeare by Rhenisch
2004 Free Will
2004 Snow
2004 Scruples
2005 Linda Rogers: Essays on Her Work (ed)
2005 Living Will
2005 (eye)pokes
2005 Math Tricks
2005 Free Will CD
2005 Living Will CD
2005 In the Presence of Ghosts CD
2005 Kazoo: The Psalm at the End of the Song CD
2006 Winging Home: A Palette of Birds
2006 The Wolves at Evelyn : Journey Through a Dark Century
2006 Facing the Light (ed)
2007 Return to Open Water
2007 Return to Open Water CD
2007 In This Poem I Am: The Selected Poems of Robin Skelton (ed)
2008 “Catching a Snare Drum at the Fraser’s Mouth”
2008 “The Silver Hills Above Carnarvon”

Readings

1980-2009 270+ Readings in British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba
June, 1999 Poetry Tour England (Canadian High Commission and Canada Council)
2005 Keynote Speaker, Powell River Festival of Writers
July, 2009 Denman Island Writers and Readers Festival

• Prizes

1980 Rosalind Hewlett Petch Memorial Prize in Creative Writing
1991 Confederation Poetry Prize
1982-1998 5 time runner-up CBC/Tilden/Saturday Night Literary Contest
1996 Best Arts and Culture Writing (B.C. & Yukon Community Newspapers Association)
2000 Tom Thomson’s Shack nominated for two B.C. Book Prizes.
2003 Critic’s Desk Award for best long review of poetry, Arc Magazine
2003 Poem of the Year (Tao Hill), Arc Magazine
2005 Critic’s Desk Award for best long review of poetry, Arc Magazine
2005 Malahat Review Long Poem Prize, for Abandon
2007 Short-listed for both poetry and nonfiction, CBC Literary Awards
2007 The Wolves at Evelyn nominated for the Hubert Evans Award (B.C. Book Prizes)
2007 Malahat Review Long Poem Prize, for The Bone Yard
2007 George Ryga Award for Social Responsibility in British Columbia Literature for The Wolves at Evelyn
2008 CBC Literary Awards 2nd Prize for Poetry for “Catching a Snare Drum at the Fraser’s Mouth”
2008 Theatre BC National Playwriting Competition, Special Merit Prize for Pox!

• Judge

2002-3 B.C. Book Prizes (Roderick Haig Brown Regional Prize & Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize)
2006-7 Creative Writing Assessor, Cariboo Festival of the Arts
2007 Youngpoets.ca senior judge
2007 Alberta Book Awards
2008 Lampman-Scott Poetry Prize, Ottawa
2008 B.C. Book Prizes (Roderick Haig Brown Regional Prize)
2009 PK Page Founders Prize (Malahat Review)

• Workshops

1981-2008 Workshops in poetry for schools and teachers throughout British Columbia
1987 Designed and taught a 4 week poetry unit at the Grade 4 Level, Similkameen Elementary
1992 Designed and taught a 5 part poetry unit at the Grade 3 level, Mile 108 Elementary
1993 Workshop in Myth (with Garry Gottfriedson): Equinox Festival, 100 Mile House
1995 Three Month workshop with elementary school students (Grades 4-6) in writing interactive poetry for animation in time and space on the computer, Mile 108 Elementary
1995-9 Mentor in poetry, prose, concrete poetry, computer graphics, journalism, and radio drama, Mile 108 Elementary, Peter Skene Ogden Senior Secondary, 100 Mile Junior High, Anne Stevenson and Columneetza Secondary Schools
1996 Writer in Residence, Douglas College
1996-9 Designed and taught 4 12-week courses of Creative Writing instruction (poetry and prose), University College of the Cariboo
1998-2005 Workshop leader, Young Authors Conference, Kamloops
1999 High school workshop leader, Long Eaton, UK
1999-2000 Designed and delivered 4 distance writing workshops for the B.C. Festival of the Arts
2001 Workshop on Creative Non-Fiction for Island Mountain Arts Festival
2001 Editing workshop with the Hub City Writers group in Kamloops
2000-4 Primary, elementary and secondary school literacy workshop leader in the Cariboo and the Chilcotin
2003 Designed and delivered a one-week long writing workshop for gifted students in Vernon
2003 Designed and delivered a poetry workshop for Heritage Canada for World Poetry Day
2003-4 Instructor of Work in Progress workshop, Victoria School of Writing (including Literary Fiction, Popular Fiction, Science Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Autobiography, Journal, Children’s Fiction, Poetry, Drama). Follow-up workshops in Langley, New Westminster, and Victoria
2004 Workshop for the Poetic Research Centre in Fort St. John, B.C.
2004 Workshop on Sound and Visual Poetry for Kootenay School of the Arts
2004 Poetry Workshop, Backroom Books, Revelstoke
2005 Workshop on Poetry and Fiction: Northwest College, Prince Rupert
2005 Workshop on removing the speaking “I”, Canadian Authors Association, Welland
2005 Workshop on imagery, Keremeos
2005 Electronic Writer in Residence, Canadian Authors Association, Niagara
2005 Workshop on Revision, the Second Literary Art, Powell River Festival of the Written Arts
2005 Work In Progress Workshop, Victoria
2000-2008 Online mentor for fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, working with writers from Canada, the United States, and Norway
2005 Creative Nonfiction Panelist, Green College, UBC
20066-2007 Workshops for primary, intermediate and secondary school-aged entrants to the Cariboo Festival of the Arts
2006 Work in Progress Workshop, Williams Lake
2006 Writing from a Visual Palette, Alan Brooks Nature Centre, Vernon; TRU Kamloops; Shuswap Festival of the Written Arts, Salmon Arm
2006-2007 Designed and delivered a 18 part series of bookmaking workshops for Arts Starts in Schools
2007 The Future of the Book Panelist, First Annual Book Growers Festival, Kingston
2007 Memoir instructor, Victoria School of Writing
2007 B.C. Book Prize Tour (including high school workshops)
2007 Workshop on creative nonfiction, BC Federation of Writers, Salmon Arm
2007 Workshop leader on creative nonfiction at the Creative Nonfiction Collective Annual Conference in Banff, as well as for the BC Federation of Writers in Salmon Arm and Nakusp
2007 Electronic Writer in Residence, Ottawa Chapter of Canadian Authors Association
2007 Workshop on Dialogue, Ottawa Chapter of Canadian Authors Association
2007-2008 Book-making workshops for school children, Art Starts
2008 Work in Progress Workshop, White Rock
2007-2008 Poetry workshops, Campbell River Arts Council
2008 Workshop leader for BC Teachers of English Language Arts Conference
2008 Workshop on Memoir, Campbell River Arts Council, and Victoria
2008 Workshop on Constructing a Photography Book (With Chris Harris), Shuswap Festival of Writers
2008-2009 Short Story Contest Preparatory Workshops, Timberline Secondary School and Carihi Secondary School, Campbell River
2009 Workshop leader on poetry and the spoken voice, Campbell River Arts Council
2009 Denman Island Writers’ and Readers’ Festival
2009 Workshop leader on creative nonfiction at the Creative Nonfiction Collective Annual Conference in Banff, April
2009 Book Reviewing Forum, Pacific Festival of the Book
2009 The Coffee Table Book as Literature, ALEC conference, Victoria
2009 Beyond the Page Reading, Timberline Secondary School (BC Federation of Writers)

•Editor

1993-1995 Milestones, a quarterly review of the Arts in the South Cariboo
1994 -1999 The Milestones Review and The Wireweed Review, book review quarterlies
1996- Numerous fiction, non-fiction, children’s, illustrated and poetry manuscripts for writers and publishers
2007 Casa Miralago: Biography of an Okanagan Photographer, by Hugo Redivo, Lakeside Publishing, Penticton
2007 The Bowron Lakes, by Chris Harris, Country Lights Publishing
2007 This Luminous Bond, by Lilian Welch, Borealis Press
2008 Spirit in the Grass: the Forgotten Landscape of the Cariboo-Chilcotin, by Chris Harris et al. Nominated for two B.C. Book Prizes, Country Lights Publishing
2008 Mongrel Love (Poetry), by Judith Krause, Hagios Press
2008 Rocksalt: 108 British Columbia Poets, Mother Tongue Publishing
2009 For the Love of the River: The First Annual Roderick Haig-Brown Lecture, by Van Egan, Campbell River Arts Council

•Travel

1981 Haida Gwaii

1986 Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, following Sepp Dietrich’s trail through the Battle of the Bulge, through Sedan, to Neuchatel and Chillon with John Howe, to the Reichenau, the Freiburg Cathedral, Kuppenheim and Schloss Favourite, to the Jelling Stones and Fjords in Denmark, and on to Copenhagen, while Chernobyl fell over our shoulders.

1991 Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, with the bulk of time spent in the Ruhr. Easter in Freiburg.

1994 Germany, Austria, Switzerland, including two weeks in Garmisch, and visits to Innsbruck, Munich, Kuppenheim, Pforzheim, and Salzburg.

1995 Toronto

1998 London, Northhampton, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, with Lisa Robertson, Tim Bowling, Bill Bissett, and Dione Brand, as ambassadors of Canadian poetry in a program sponsored by the Canadian High Commission, the League of Canadian Poets, and the British Government.

1998 Toronto, Ottawa, Southern Ontario, and Winnipeg

2000 The Canadian Prairies

2003 Haida Gwaii

2003 Quebec City and Montreal

2004 Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria, England, Wales, including Eisenach, Dresden, Pirnau, Meissen, Potsdam, Berlin, Bochum, Cologne, Worms, Speyer, Maulbronn, Freiburg, Reichenau, Birnau, Colmar, Struthof Concentration Camp, Zurich, Montreux, Vevey, Luzern, Rigi, Neuchatel, Salzburg, London (to see the Taming of the Shrew at the Globe), the Cotswolds, and North Wales.

2004 Quebec City for Carnival and the Ile de Orleans

2004 Southern and Eastern Ontario

2005 Southern and Eastern Ontario

2008 The Via Regia, Germany

•Online

2000-2002 Webmaster, OpenMic series, League of Canadian Poets

2000-2002 Webmaster, youngpoets.ca

2000-2002 Webmaster, League of Canadian Poets literary links

2000-2002 Editor, sPOkes poetry ezine for youth

•Leadership

1993-1996 Director, 100 Mile and District Arts Council

1995-2002 Member, British Columbia Ministry of Education Fine Arts and English Language Arts Curriculum Overview Teams

1998-2002 Communications Chair, League of Canadian Poets

2001-2002 Secretary, School District #27 District Parents Advisory Council

2004-2005 Chair, School District #27 Gifted Education Committee

1992-2004 Team Manager, Odyssey of the Mind and Destination Imagination

2005– Problem Captain, Destination Imagination Regional Tournament

2008– Director, Creative Nonfiction Collective

2008– Director, Campbell River Arts Council

2008– Consulting Director, BCOMA (Destination Imagination)

•Memberships

League of Canadian Poets
Campbell River Community Arts Council
Playwrights Theatre Centre
The Writers’ Union of Canada
The Creative Nonfiction Collective