Bio
At age sixteen, I left home and went to sea. I went commercial salmon fishing off the coast of British Columbia. It was a life I adored. After seven years, a severe back problem put me back on shore. For nine years, I lived with chronic constant pain. I lost everything: job, marriage, home. I was so disabled that walking half a block was a strain; I owned a wheelchair for shopping expeditions.
After nine years, someone introduced me to the concept of spiritual healing. It was a slow process of studying for me. Healing did not come quickly, but it did come, and it’s left me with core spiritual principles I rely on to this day.
The years I spent trolling for salmon have marked my life and my writing indelibly. I am in love with the coast.
Much of my writing is about nature and spirituality. I am particularly interested in how we take our spiritual practice into everyday life. If you’ve ever seen the sun burning through the red leaves of a Japanese maple, you’ll understand the effect I am talking of. The maple is lovely on its own, and likely its setting is as well. But when you see the transformative effective of light through those red leaves, it’s lit up, it’s luminous, it’s so glorious that you don’t want to stop looking at it–but of course the light moves on and someone calls you in for tea and what was it actually, you were planning to cook for dinner? The world intervenes. I want to know how we take that moment of light and move it into the realm of the gritty everyday, say, washing dishes or annoyance with someone close to us.
During the pain years, I wrote and took distance-ed classes at university. After my healing, I worked mainly as a free-lance writer and editor, with excursions into garden design and maintenance.
I have a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia, where I studied Creative Writing. A former President of the Federation of BC Writers, I work as a writing instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
My husband Garnet Coburn and I have one daughter, Jocelyn, who graduated from SFU with a degree in English and is–gasp–writing.
On request, I am happy to do readings on writing workshops in schools, libraries or for writing groups. My most recent presentations were at the Emily Carr library in Victoria on “The New Paradigm in Publishing: What Writers Need to Know,” and a teleclass for the Adult Burn Survivors of BC: “Three Great Tips for Writing Your Story.” I really enjoy personal opportunities to interact with readers and people interested in writing. And let’s face it, I’m a ham, I greatly enjoy performing.
New
Jocelyn and her partner, Tom Hilifer, had their first child on February 10, 2010. Leila Marie Barbara has a tremendous Mohawk and as of the end of April is in the 95th percentile in terms of her weight and height. 
The picture is of Leila, age two months, with her devoted companion Norton. Jocelyn has started a blog about her experience mothering.
I have two new books coming out from Wolsak and Wynn Press. One is Einstein’s Cat, a book of poetry which has been accepted for publication in 2012. The other is a book I co-edited (see details under books on the left margin) called Slice Me Some Truth: An Anthology of Canadian Creative Nonfiction.
I am the new Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Kwantlen.
In between volcanic eruptions, I visited Iceland in May, doing research for a book of poems. What a fabulous experience!
Proud Moment
This creative nonfiction piece of mine was published in Reader’s Digest. It’s posted on trainer Mark Kockocki’s website, drop dead happy. Mark is a trainer and personal coach par excellence.
Selected Awards, Grants & Honours
Listed: Listed: Who’s Who in Canada, Who’s Who in Canadian Literature, International Writers & Authors Who’s Who, International Who’s Who in Poetry
2003 Awarded first prize in poetry, CBC Literary Competition, $6,000.
Papers collected by University of Calgary, Special Collections
2002 Awarded first place in poetry, Room of One’s Own Competition, $500. prize
2002 Awarded senior BC Arts Council grant for novel
2001 Awarded Canada Council project grant for poetry
1999 Awarded George Woodcock grant for creative nonfiction
1998 Awarded first prize for poetry, the Canadian Church Press
1997 Awarded first prize for poetry, the Canadian Church Press
1997 Awarded BC Arts Council grant for poetry
1995 Won second place in the international Leacock competition for poetry–$1,000.
Additional poem shortlisted
1994 Won National Magazine Gold for creative nonfiction originally published in Saturday Night
1994 Awarded University Graduate Fellowship, UBC
1993 Winner, Stony Brook University Short Fiction Competition. $1,000. prize
1992 Awarded Canada Council Project Grant for poetry
1992 Winner, Event magazine’s Creative Nonfiction competition, $500. prize
1992 Awarded best narrative, fiction or nonfiction, the Canadian Church Press
Readings: 104 literary performances in 30 cities in Canada and the US
Selected Magazines
Poetry Ireland Review, EnRoute, Reader’s Digest, Chatelaine, Canadian Living, Harrowsmith Country Life, Konundrum Literary Engine (US), Writing for Our Lives (US), Quest, Pottersfield Portfolio, Prairie Fire, Grain, Literary Hot Girls (US), Saturday Night, Prairie Schooner (US), Capilano Review, Canadian Fiction Magazine, The Westcoast Fisherman, Canadian Literature, CV2, Dandelion, Canadian Women Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme, Grail: An Ecumenical Journal, Room of One’s Own, Fireweed, Prism, Writing, arc, The Antigonish Review, The Malahat Review, The West Coast Review, The New Quarterly, Quarry, This Magazine, Event, Poetry Canada Review, blewointmentpress, Fiddlehead
Selected Anthologies
The Dominion of Love, ed. T.Wayman (Harbour); Teaching to Wonder: Responding to Poetry in the Secondary Classroom, K. Leggo (Pacific Educational Press); Essays from Contemporary Culture, ed. K. Ackerly (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, US), 1st,2nd,3rd editions; Ear to the Ground, ed. S. Davis (CUNE Press, US); North Coast Collected (Caitlin Press); Windhorse Reader: Choice Poems of ’93 (Samurai Press); Eating Apples: Knowing Women’s Lives, ed. C. Edwards, K. Stewart (NeWest); Vintage 93, League of Canadian Poets (Harbour); Vintage 92, League of Canadian Poets (Sono Nis); Paper Work, ed. T. Wayman (Harbour); More Than Our Jobs, ed. G. Downie, P.Tranfield (Pulp Press); Labour of Love, ed. M. Fertig (Polestar); Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, ed. A. Pater (Monitor Books, 1986-88 & 1984 editions)
