March 14th, 2009
May 30th, 2009

David Fraser lives in Nanoose Bay, on Vancouver Island. He is the founder and editor of Ascent Aspirations Magazine, http:// www.ascentaspirations.ca, since 1997. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in over 50 journals including Three Candles, Regina Weese, Ardent, Quills and Ygdrasil. He has published a collection of his poetry, Going to the Well (2004), a collection of short fiction, The Dark Side of the Billboard (2006 )and edited and published the print issues of Ascent Aspirations Magazine Anthology One (2005) , Anthology Two - Windfire (2006), and Anthology Three, AguaTerra (2007) http://www.ascentaspirations .ca/aapublishing.htm A second collection of poetry, Running Down the Wind will appear in 2007. David is currently the Federation of BC Writers Regional Director for The Islands Region. His latest passion is developing Nanaimo's newest spoken word series, WordStorm.

March 14th, 2009
April 25th, 2009

Bashu Naimi-Roy is 17. He has several corduroy jackets, and he likes writing poetry like building Lego.

March 14th, 2009

Cindy Shantz has been published in several newspapers including The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, and The Times Colonist. Her stories have won awards at The Santa Barbara Writer's Conference. In Switzerland her works have appeared in newspapers and magazines and in an anthology of short stories, essays and poetry.
In 1990 Cindy moved from Nanaimo to Switzerland to marry a Swiss. She lived in the German part of Switzerland for nine years where she taught English conversation and literature classes, wrote stories, essays and poetry, and learned Swiss German which, she is convinced, is even more difficult than yodeling! She returned to Nanaimo with her husband in 2000, and In 2004 wrote and produced her first play: Cat Tales: "What's in a Name?"
Along with David Fraser, Cindy is a co-founder of WordStorm. She loves to encourage people to display their talents and to provide a supportive venue for them to do this.

March 14th, 2009

Pat Smekal After spending many years in Australia, Pat returned with her husband to retire on Vancouver Island. She has since studied poetry at the Victoria School of Writing, facilitated poetry courses for Elder College, and become an enthusiastic participant in Patrick Lane's master classes. Pat strongly believes poetry should be read aloud, and is a frequent reader at WordStorm, a spoken-word event in Nanaimo. Her poetry has appeared in various anthologies and magazines, and has won a number of prizes across Canada.

March 14th, 2009

Seth Eggler: born in a big city, raised in a series of small ones. feel most at home in between destinations. talks in his sleep.

March 14th 2009
May 30th 2009

Judith Millar is a writer of short stories, personal essays, poems, song lyrics and magazine articles. With over 100 published pieces, she has won awards for her creative writing in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Judy says she still gets her biggest kick from writing humour, and she especially enjoys giving readings of her humorous works. An artist and former corporate communications manager, she moved to Nanaimo, BC from Kitchener, Ontario in 2007.

March 14th, 2009
May 30th, 2009

Mary Ann Moore is a Nanaimo-based poet, freelance writer and facilitator of writing circles where unsuspecting poets are born. Her poetry has been produced on CD, When My Heart is Open, and published in chapbooks, anthologies, periodicals and literary journals. Her personal essays, fiction, columns and book reviews have been published in Prairie Fire, ascent magazine, Monday Magazine, The Vancouver Sun, and others. Mary Ann has just completed a non-fiction manuscript called Writing Home and is working on a poetry collection and a second novel. www.maryannmoore.ca

March 14th, 2009

Zaman Naimi-Roy is 18. His thoughts crawl but they do not creep.

March 14th, 2009

Jacinta Arella Prodaniuk is 15 years old. That's all she's got so far.

March 14th, 2009

John Beaton is a retired actuary who was raised in the highlands of Scotland and now lives in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island. He recites humorous poetry at Celtic gatherings and performances of the musical group "Celtic Chaos". He moderates a metrical poetry workshop on the internet and his poetry has been published in newspapers, literary and fishing magazines, and internet sites and journals. "His poetry tends strongly toward the lyrical, with heavy use of alliteration and assonance even when he writes in iambic pentameter." - Forgotten Ground Regained

March 14th, 2009
April 25th, 2009

Kendall Patrick, is a 22 year old singer songwriter from Ladysmith, BC. She has 7 years of classical piano training under her belt, taught herself guitar and has been writing songs since grade 7. She is currently attending The Malaspina Jazz program, majoring in voice. She released her first album, House of Ink, in 2007, which includes a beat poetry piece called "The Girl Rant" . "The Girl Rant" was written to empower young girls into awareness out of the media-driven conventions of today's popular culture, which heavily emphasizes superficiality. "The Girl Rant" has received recognition from the Oprah Winfrey Show, and has been taken to local schools. The power of this piece has inspired Kendall to continue writing for empowerment and she is currently on a mission to begin "The Girl Rant Movement". She performed at The Vancouver Island Music Festival in Comox in 2008. You can find her music at My Space.

April 25th, 2009

Andrew Brown has been writing poetry since his youth and has found it to be a sustaining joy in his life. He's been published in several literary magazines over the years. In addition to poetry, Andrew has published short stories, essays and travel articles in a variety of magazines from Western Living to Travel Scoop. He looks forward to putting together a book of poems as soon as he retires from teaching high school english and drama. Andrew and his wife Lili currently reside in Qualicum Beach with their ancient cat Dr. Dre.

April 25th, 2009
May 30th, 2009

Shawn Becker is from Gabriola Island. He is a frequnt open mike performer at the Nanaimo monthly WordStorm Spoken Word Series and has won prizes in the open mike competition.

April 25th, 2009

Ann Graham Walker is a writer and journalist who moved to Vancouver Island in the summer of 2002, after living and working in Nova Scotia for twenty-five years. She had many wonderful experiences in Nova Scotia - raising three children, working as a CBC radio producer, getting a front-row seat on the political world as speech writer to former Nova Scotia premier, Dr. John Savage, publishing a book about Halifax, and enjoying many friendships. However being a cold-weather wimp at heart, she was very happy to leave her snow shovels behind and swap them for the West Coast’s blissful gardening and majestic landscapes. She still works as a freelance journalist, hikes and gardens profusely, and lives in Nanoose Bay with her husband, a Border collie and three cats. Since coming to BC she has published a story - “Categories” in Word Works, and had a poem published on the “Monday’s Poem” segment of the Leaf Press web site.

April 25th, 2009

Margaret Thompson came to Canada in 1967 and taught English at secondary and post-secondary levels until 1998. She is the author of five books, some for children and some for adults, as well as prize-winning short stories, essays, and poems in various literary magazines. Her second collection of essays is due out this fall. She is a Past President of the Federation of BC Writers, and a member of the editorial committee of WordWorks. She lives in Victoria, BC, with two basset hounds, a Siamese cat and a flock of peacocks.

April 25th, 2009

Roneen Marcoux has recently repatriated to Vancouver Island, after 25 years of living and working in and around Vancouver. She started her writing career as a playwright, but after joining the Simon Fraser University Writer's Studio in 2003, she ventured into the world of lyric prose. She is currently working on a collection of short stories recounting her recent two year adventure in Cambodia. She is also working a novel and wants to mount a play she wrote a few years ago. Recently she has been secretly writing poems, which is a complete surprise and great delight.

May 30th, 2009

Kim Goldberg is still one step ahead of the law somewhere on Vancouver Island. She is believed to be camped out along the scrubby margins of poetry and other indeterminate art forms. Do not approach without a tranquilizer dart. Innocent readers of Prism, Dalhousie Review, On Spec, The New Quarterly, Cahoots and other magazines have all been subjected to her ravings in recent months. (She has always maintained her innocence in the matter of "Spirit Mop" and the other unchained appliances that began springing up in Nanaimo's historic Old Quarter during the Spirit Bear invasion of Fall 2006.) Prior to her life of aesthetic crime she was a journalist for many years reporting on politics, media and environment. FBI profilers believe that a Chi Gong overload may have super-heated her synaptic pathways, leading to her subsequent unraveling. Despite her life on the lam, she somehow managed to organize and curate the Urban Eyes Art Exhibition in 2006, held at two Nanaimo galleries and featuring the work of 52 local artists and architects on the theme of urban development. She has reportedly launched a publishing enterprise under the baffling moniker of Pig Squash Press (suspected to be code for some future barnyard uprising) to further disseminate her brain-addled, photo-poetic manifestos.

April 25th, 2009
May 30th, 2009

Dianne Clarence has written innumerable professional newsletters and novel-length undergrad papers. Her work as a program developer, nurse and firefighter/first responder fires her writing. A founding member of the Big Picture Window Writers Group, she also joins Easy Writers to fuel her enduring quest to write. As a teen, she was recruited to publish a weekly newsletter for the Kamloops News. She has poems published in the e-zine, Fireworks III and Island Writer Magazine. Dianne's current project is a fictional novel about nurses.

May 30th, 2009

Bill Perry is a British Columbia west coast writer originally from Connecticut who has spent his life in the outdoors as a ski jumper, ski instructor, mountaineer and forestry specialist. Currently he shares his time in Ucluelet, Mount Washington and Vancouver. He is the owner and operator of Green Wave Adventures that specializes in guided hikes and seaside scrambles along the Wild Pacific Trail.

May 30th, 2009

Mark Warrior was born and educated in England. He worked 10 years in the forest industry (mostly logging) and nearly 25 years as a commercial fisherman (seine crew). Currently he is employed by the Labourers' Union as a Strategic Researcher supporting organising drives.

May 30th, 2009

Jeff Westnedge is a local Vancouver Island artist currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in graphic design at Vancouver Island University. His interests include music, spoken word, mythology, philosophy and family. He believes every physical action has a spiritual counterpart and everyone has the power to affect change in their surroundings. He believes change starts in the heart and grows into community, compassion, unity, and rations for everyone, self and other. Hope is our foundation.

May 30th, 2009

Hilary Peach: Audio poet Hilary Peach is an inter-disciplinary performer whose work marries song and poetry. For 15 years she has performed internationally at events that include the Vancouver International Folk Music Festival, Montreal’s Voix Des Ameriques, and the Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam. She has released an exquisite debut CD, Poems Only Dogs Can Hear, in which she suspends surreal vignettes inside a matrix of music. Peach was a finalist in the 2004 CBC Radio Poetry Face-Off, and has recently released a short film, Pennsylvania. She is currently working on a literary collection of poetry and a Folk Opera about her boilermaking work called Suitcase Local with musicians Andreas Kahre, Alex Varty and Leah Hokanson. Hilary Peach is Artistic Director of the Poetry Gabriola Festival.

September 26th, 2009

Leanne McIntosh was born, raised and married in Regina, SK but after 36 years calls Vancouver Island home. She has five children, twelve grandchildren and is soon to become a great-grandmother. She worked as Pastoral Assistant in a Nanaimo RC parish and later as a counsellor in a practice for women. She is a founding member of the Island Women Poets and organizes Poets Against War readings. She currently spends time and energy on abstract painting and writing poetry.

September 26th, 2009

Ursula Vaira's poems been published on the web and in anthologies and journals, including the Hawthorne Anthology, the Federation of BC Writers Anthology, and Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine. Her long poem A Thousand Miles: the Journey Poems was published as a chapbook and Frog River, another long journey poem, has been accepted for the Portage Anthology, edited by Kevin McPherson and Heidi Garnett. She is the founder and owner of Leaf Press, publishing poetry on line and in print.

September 26th, 2009

Ewan Kirkaldy is re-entering the world of writing poetry, after a period of undisclosed absence. To his suprise, he recently discovered a happy satisfaction for writing haiku's, based on his personal experiences. He keeps them stored in "Notepad" on his laptop at home. His first and last published work came out 2 decades ago when one of his poems was selected for an anthology of child's poems from his local school district in Victoria, BC.

September 26th, 2009

Julie Briese: Poetry Wrapped In A Melody

Poetry Wrapped In A Melody is a Celebration Of Arriving and Continuing to arrive as the Buddhists might say, the seeds of which have been planted and nurtured both consciously and unconsciously over time.
Several years ago, while attending a Woman & Words Workshop in Nelson, B.C. , Jule was inspired by a young woman from one of the Gulf Islands who performed with an unique combination of poetry and guitar.
Since that time, she has written songs for her workshops and poems that become songs when she chooses to celebrate life's gifts or to work through challenges life tosses her way.
Jule Briese, who now resides in Qualicum Beach, welcomes the challenge of performing, finding inspiration in the following quote from Marianne Williamson, "We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just some of us; it's everyone. And as we let our own light shine through, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."