My Story
I grew up playing and dreaming on the beaches and marshes of Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. I have an MFA in Creative Nonfiction, degrees in journalism and social work, and I study tarot on the side. My writing about mental health, social justice, and finding joy where it seems there’s none to be had has appeared in Writerly Magazine and in audio essays and short documentaries for CBC radio.
My debut novel, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, (Vagrant, 2024) is a Toronto Star Top 20 'Must Reads' of Summer 2024. My first non-fiction book, Enriched by Catastrophe: Social Work and Social Conflict after the Halifax Explosion, was published by Fernwood in 2007.
I'm currently working on another novel - a story set on the Tantramar marshes in the present day, with historical elements relating to the failed Chignecto Ship Railway project. I'm also writing a 'memoir disguised as a thriller' titled A Good Girl’s Guide to Lying – about my experience living with PTSD and dissociative amnesia.
I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. I have two almost-grown children, four cats, and a dog. Yes, it's a lot of fur.
Snickerdoodle Photography