About Me
I’m a professional writer, editor, author and creative writer. With over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, I’ve crafted everything from magazine features to blog posts to website copy. I started my professional writing career as Online Editor at the late Saturday Night magazine. Since then, I’ve also written journalism about topics from technology to education for national publications including University Affairs and The Globe and Mail. See samples from these publications in my journalism portfolio.
In 2002, I launched my writing/editing business CodeWord Communications. It’s my pleasure to consult with clients and share the strategic knowledge I’ve gained from working on communications projects across a spectrum of different organizations. Professionally, my focus is on longform writing from magazine articles to blog posts to editing annual reports. Although I have even been hired to write a greeting card or two!
I also teach writing to the next generation. I earned a master’s degree in English from York University and a PhD in English from the University of Ottawa. My PhD dissertation focussed on the development of nineteenth-century Canadian magazines. Since finishing my doctorate, I’ve taught at the University of Ottawa, York University and now Humber College. At Humber, I helped to create the Professional Writing and Communications (PWC) graduate certificate where I now teach part-time. I’m proud to know dozens of young writers making their way in the world. I also offer private coaching at the Feisty Freelancer!
Creative writing is also a passion. In 2019, my play “The Reading Circle” was produced as part of the New Ideas Festival at the Alumnae Theatre in Toronto. An earlier version of that play also won the Canadian National One-Act Playwriting Competition in 2006. I also volunteer with the Alumnae Theatre, helped run the now shuttered Rowers Reading Series, and participate in a private poetry collective. I published my first book of poetry, The Days You’ve Spent, with Tightrope Books (2010). I’m always at work on another creative project!