Blog Contributors

BLOG ADMINISTRATORS & EDITORS


Kirsti Anne Wakelin
illustrator

Kirsti is a Vancouver based illustrator, designer and fine artist. She is the illustrator of 5 picture books for children (A Pod of Orcas, When They Are Up, Pig in the Middle, Looking for Loons, Catching Time), 2 elementary school classroom readers (A Wild Eagle Needs a Beak, Joe’s Big Surprise) and a smattering of cover and interior art for YA novels. Picture book number 6 (Dream Boats) is due to be published in 2012. When not illustrating books for children she works as a commercial illustrator and an exhibition designer. And when not doing that, she paints for fun, travels, takes tons of photographs, reads up obscure facts about the world outside her studio and spends too much time on her computer.

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Tanya Lloyd Kyi
author/speaker

Tanya Lloyd Kyi grew up in Creston, B.C. She began her writing career as a high school poet, producing pages and pages of work that her mother loved and that her best friend religiously archived (possibly for a future blackmailing scheme).

Tanya enrolled in creative writing at the University of Victoria, intending to specialize in poetry. She soon found herself out of place among talented but pale people dressed all in black, who seemed to exist entirely on coffee. She elected to specialize in non-fiction instead. After completing her degree, she worked as a graphic designer for several years before deciding to write full-time.

She now lives in Vancouver with her husband, Min, who claims to be the world’s only Burmese occupational therapist. They have a six-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son.

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BLOG AUTHORS


Cynthia Nugent
author/illustrator/speaker

I was born in Toronto but have lived most of my life in Western Canada, apart from a couple of short stints in England. Now I live in Vancouver with my yorkie, Emma. Emma was the model for Arnie in Mister Got to Go and Arnie.

I started drawing seriously when I was 12 and have been a compulsive diarist from the age of six. I’ve had many odd jobs, including polishing teeth in a denture factory, waitressing, and being a school office assistant where my job consisted of collecting late notes, bandaging injured fingers, and gatekeeper at a Japanese garden. I’ve also taught a lot of art and writing classes at for continuing ed programs.

When I was 23, I started to show my paintings in a café. They sold for $45 each. Fortunately, I get a bit more for my paintings now. You can see my art online at www.nugentart.com. You can see the real thing at Vancouver Art Gallery rental and sales.

For fun I play the trumpet in a community band and also enjoy plunking away with the Vancouver Ukulele Circle.

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Laura Langston
author/speaker

A former journalist with the CBC, Laura Langston is the award-winning author of fifteen internationally acclaimed books for children, young adults and teens, including Hannah’s Touch, Exit Point, Lesia’s Dream, and Mile-High Apple Pie which has been translated into seven languages.

Laura grew up in North Vancouver, spent five eye-opening and often frigid years living in Winnipeg and is happy (and much warmer) now that she’s back in her hometown of Victoria, B.C.

If she isn’t writing, reading, or doing author talks, Laura is probably in the garden, spying on people at the grocery store, or planning her next meal. Her first word was cookie, her second was book and her priorities haven’t changed since. Laura hates lima beans and liver, adores popcorn with too much butter, and thinks travel provides the best education in the world.

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Jacqueline Pearce
author/speaker

Jacquie is the author of five novels for children and a collection of short stories for young adults. Themes in her work include local history, multicultural experiences, friendship and interpersonal conflicts, nature, and relationships between people and animals.

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Julie Burtinshaw
author/speaker

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kc dyer
author/speaker

kc dyer was born in Calgary, and after a peripatetic decade or two now lives with her children (and other animals) north of Vancouver, British Columbia, where she works as a freelance writer, speaker and conference coordinator for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. The author of a number of books for young adults published in North America and the UK, kc has a secret fondness for inducing nausea in teens and can often be found sharing some of the greatest grotesque moments in history with large groups of high school students.

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Kristin Butcher
 author/speaker

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Lee Edward Fodi
author/illustrator/speaker

Lee lives in Vancouver and is a children’s author, illustrator, and speaker. On his blog, he writes about his latest tours and inspirational moments, and gives sneak peaks into his latest projects. He is a self-described nerd, and a fan of Star Wars, children’s literature, and things that are orange. Some of his biggest influences are L. Frank Baum, John R. Neill, C.S. Lewis, Richard Adams, and Steve Irwin.

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Sandra Diersch
 author/speaker

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Karen Autio
author/speaker

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Alex Van Tol
 author/speaker

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blog contact: CWILLBC.blog {at} gmail {dot} com


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