Everyone has a story. Let me help you tell yours.

Are you hoping to explore your own writing through memoir, fiction, or non-fiction?

Through One Life Writing, I offer a range of coaching services, manuscript consultations, and workshops designed to support your writing and cultivate a safe space for you to explore your creativity. Let me be a guide on your journey.

Being able to tell our stories is integral to feeling whole. It takes courage and support to feel safe enough to plant the seeds of creativity and nourish the stories inside ourselves. Writing can boost our confidence, help us confront our fears, and more deeply connect us to our hearts and to the world. 

That means taking risks. And digging in for the long haul.

I offer writing and storytelling workshops across Canada and around the world. I take a mindful approach to writing, encouraging us to connect with the full experience of being alive as we learn to meet ourselves on the page. Where appropriate, group and personal workshops might include breath work and mindful reflective exercises to more deeply connect with the sensory world from which our stories are born. Standard workshops include What’s Your Story?, Poetry of the Breath, and Writing as a Tool for Healing. I love collaborating with other professionals and practitioners to approach writing from a multi-disciplinary, holistic perspective. 

Hop on over to the Events section for current and upcoming workshops and retreats. Or connect with me now to discuss your own project.

Work with me on your own time.

Whether you need assistance editing, trouble-shooting, or other consultation on a writing project, I can provide support in-person or online via Zoom. I developed Manuscript Tune-Up for writers looking for detailed, workable feedback on a manuscript-in-progress, from emerging to professional projects. As a respected editor and communications professional, I have extensive experience providing detailed, personalized feedback on fiction, nonfiction, artistic, academic, and professional writing projects. Let me help you get in the groove, find your voice, and make your writing shine. Learn more about what others have said.

For over fifteen years I’ve worked as an editor, coach, journalist, and communications professional in a wide range of capacities. I have extensive experience engaging international and Canadian youth, seniors, LGBTQ communities, second-language learners and migrant communities.

Ready to take the next step? Get in touch and we can set up a time to chat by phone or Zoom.

Want more?

I offer personalized mentorship opportunities for writers at all stages looking to deepen their engagement with the literary world. I can help you build a plan to prepare your manusript for submission to publishers and agents, helping you to engage meaningfully with audiences and others in the literary world. Through a personalized coaching package, I can help you strategize how to best tackle a new project, working with you and providing feedback and support along the way.

I’m also able to share tips and build strategies for connecting with agents, publishers, and others involved in the literary journey through a customized coaching package. Whether you’re looking to take the next step in your literary career, or are planning for down the road, be in touch to discuss a one-on-one private writing consultation that’s right for you.

I'm guided, in teaching and in life, by the following values. 

If you’d like to discuss working together, drop me a note and we can set up a time to chat.

Are you a teacher? Do you work in a school?

For educators and administrators, I offered tailored classroom workshops, from hour-long to multi-day events. I have presented workshops, seminars, and lectures to secondary and postsecondary students around the world, in places as diverse as France, Taiwan, Netherlands, Colombia, China, Costa Rica, and Mexico--and of course at home here in Canada. I have a background in international education, have served as writer-in-residence for Lester B. Pearson United World College and the Canada C3 voyage, and have researched and published academic work about the connections between storytelling, identity, home, and global migration. I’m always than happy to talk to your school--whether local or international--about tailoring a course, workshop or event that meets the needs of your students. 

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About Me

I have worked at universities across Canada, in public sector organizations, and most recently as an independent editor, researcher, journalist, and consultant. I hold a PhD in Adult Education and Community Development from the University of Toronto and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. My doctoral research explored the intersections between storytelling, home, and belonging, looking at how we used stories to understand our lives, particularly as we move through life in a globalized world. 

As a teacher, my key areas of focus include life writing, memoir, fiction, creative nonfiction, personal journalism, embodied writing, storytelling for newcomers and migrant communities, LGBTQ life writing, and writing as a popular education and adult education tool. I love working one on one with writers through coaching and manuscript development.

My fiction, essays, journalism and reviews have been widely published, and my work has been widely recognized, with nominations for the Commonwealth Prize, Journey Prize, National Magazine Award for Fiction, Western Magazine Award for Personal Journalism, the CBC Short Story Prize, and the CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize. I’ve received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, Access Copyright Foundation, Innovation PEI through the PEI Artist Grant program, the Banff Centre, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). I’m a 2017 Writer-in-Residence at Lester B. Pearson United World College and a 2017 Writer-in-Residence on the Canada C3 expedition across Canada. I'm a Scorpio and I love to travel. Learn more about my background here.

A few random facts

Countries visited: 79

Happy place: anywhere near the ocean

Desert island book: A Little Life