I grew up in Spillimacheen, BC, at the confluence of the Spillimacheen and Columbia Rivers in the valley bottom between the Rockies and Purcells.

 

My family of six lived in a house without running water or central heating. My mother carried washing water from the slough below the house and drove a couple of miles to Washout Creek for our drinking water. 

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I left Spilly when I was 18 and moved to the coast of BC where I got my degree in science, started working in biotech, and raised my family. I love my coastal life; I'm an avid kayaker, hiker and gardener.

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Like those of us who spent our childhoods in the same community, the place where I grew up is fixed in my memory: the landscape as much as the people. But memory is a capricious companion and in my current poetry manuscript, about growing up and leaving Spillimacheen, I re-imagine when memory is not enough. 

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In 2014, I graduated with a BA in writing from the University of Victoria. While at UVic, I had the good fortune to study with acclaimed poets Melanie Siebert, Tim Lilburn and Lorna Crozier.

 

I’ve also studied with Jan Zwicky at Hollyhock, on Cortes Island, and with Don McKay at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

 

I recently completed my MFA at the University of British Columbia where I studied poetry with Susan Musgrave (my thesis advisor) and George Murray.

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I am a member of the League of Canadian Poets and regularly attend the Planet Earth Poetry Series in Victoria.