Canadian Writers Group

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• Barbara K. Adamski

  Vancouver, British Columbia

  A writer, editor, and certified proofreader, Barb has worked on educational manuals, annual reports, brochures, newsletters, and web copy. She writes for several magazines and trade publications and has written and recorded for CBC Radio. A stickler for facts, she is a regular contributor to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Barb has a B.A. in French Literature, a diploma in professional writing and editing, and an M.A. in Integrated Studies (specializing in cultural studies). An avid lacrosse fan, Barb's thesis is on the history of lacrosse, a topic she has written about extensively. She also speaks Japanese.

• Bert Archer

  Toronto, ON

  Bert Archer was born in Montreal, and raised and educated in Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, Dublin and Toronto. He started work as a journalist in 1993, and has worked for many newspapers and magazines as an editor, manager, writer and columnist.

• Andrew Braithwaite

  Boston, MA

  Andrew Braithwaite specializes in such topics as deliver happiness – writing about cool stuff you can eat, or drink, or visit, or live inside. He also covers sport, which every season breaks the heart of nearly all its followers. A graduate of Harvard University in History and Science, Andrew is a former Associate Editor at Azure, the Toronto-based magazine of architecture and design. He is a member of the AIPS (International Sports Press Association), and is a Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers. Originally from British Columbia, Andrew has lived and worked in Toronto, Boston, Paris, Chicago, Dublin, Johannesburg, and Washington, D.C.

• Christy Ann Conlin

  Halifax, NS

  Christy Ann Conlin is a bestselling novelist, essayist, speech writer, ghost writer, editor, motivational speaker and educator.  Her writing has appeared in newspapers, magazines, anthologies and journals in Canada and the United States. She holds a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and an Education Degree from Acadia University.  She works with a broad range of clients in a creative capacity, providing writing services, writing workshops, coaching and mentoring.

• Wendy Dennis

  Toronto, ON

  Wendy Dennis is an award-winning journalist and author with a uniquely personal voice who writes provocatively about social, psychological and cultural issues. Her writing is known for its wit, depth, insight and honesty. She has written about psychoanalysis for The Walrus and blogged about divorce for The Huffington Post, where her work has gone viral. Her widely discussed Toronto Life story, “The Divorce From Hell”, prompted a national debate. Dennis also writes copy (Butterfield & Robinson), and speeches for special occasions (from CEO remarks to wedding toasts). Her speechwriting services can be found at crowdpleasercommunications.com.  Her journalism can be found at wendydennis.com and huffingtonpost.com.

• Amy Jo Ehman

  Saskatoon, SK

  After a career in broadcasting at the CBC, Amy Jo turned to freelance writing in 2000. Corporate work pays the bills, but freelance journalism fuels her curious and creative urges. She is a food columnist at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, which bubbled over into the book, Prairie Feast: A Writer’s Journey Home for Dinner. Loves reporting on courtroom dramas for their humanity (The Queen vs. Robert Latimer; Percy Schmeiser vs. Monsanto) and new agricultural achievements for their novelty (lemons for the prairies!). Recent assignments: How is technology changing the practice of law? and Why is Saskatchewan booming while its neighbour isn’t?

• Alison Garwood-Jones

  Toronto, ON

  Alison Garwood-Jones is an award-winning writer, blogger and a former editor with Elle Canada and Viva magazines. She was recently cited as a favourite blogger by BrazenCareerist.com, a Washington D.C.-based work-related website for "next- generation professionals" that has been profiled by 60 Minutes. Before landing in print media, Alison was a museum intern, fellow and curator in Chicago, Washington D.C., Paris and her hometown of Hamilton, Ont. This was followed by a three-year stint in film where she worked as a historical consultant and writer for a series of artist biopics that aired on HBO and PBS. Alison's blog, "Society Pages," explores her take on human nature.

• Don Genova

  Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia

  Don Genova is a writer and broadcaster currently based in BC, and has worked in Alberta, Ontario and Newfoundland. He has a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo and Master in Food Culture from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy. A former CBC Radio host, producer and reporter, Don is most known for his "Pacific Palate" and "Food For Thought" food columns heard across Canada and he also works in print, online and television.  Don teaches food and travel writing courses at UBC, and food culture and cooking classes at a variety of outlets in Victoria.

• Malwina Gudowska

  Calgary, Alberta

  Malwina Gudowska is an award-winning journalist who contributes to a variety of online and print publications. After a stint as an associate editor for Avenue, Calgary’s city magazine, she was the inaugural Alberta editor for FASHION before launching the Calgary edition of VitaminDaily.com. She has also moulded impressionable minds as an instructor at the University of Calgary and often appears on television and radio providing commentary on lifestyle trends. In addition to freelance writing, she is also currently a city editor for Canadian online lifestyle guide Sweetspot.ca.

• Ian Harvey

  Toronto, Ontario

  Ian Harvey is an established freelance writer who has worked in marketing, media relations, marketing and daily newspapers for more than 35 years. He specializes in crisis communications planning, media training, media strategies and content creation for a variety of media and business needs. Whether it’s a magazine feature, a breaking story for a newspaper, a case study, web content, white paper, sales brochure Ian’s got it covered.

• Robert Hercz

  Toronto, ON

  Robert earned a degree in engineering at the University of Toronto in 1979 and spent a decade in the computer industry, based in London (England), Toronto, and finally Los Angeles. During this time, he worked with a fascinating range of clients including the Vatican, the Los Alamos National Laboratories (home of the atomic bomb), and the National Library of France. Finding himself more interested in his clients’ backstories than their computer systems (and unfulfilled by corporate life), he became a full-time writer in 1990. Robert is also an avid photographer and regularly sells photos that illustrate his writing.

• Ilona Kauremszky

  Toronto, ON

  Follow your dream job. That’s what travel journalist Ilona Kauremszky has been pursuing full-time for 10-plus years.  Ilona travels the world and reports on destinations and the next big travel trend for major publications across North America. She works with leading guidebook companies, writes a weekly travel column and co-produces mycompass.ca and its digital tv channel, mycompasstv. A consummate traveler who enjoys meeting new cultures and people, Ilona has ample story ideas to suit any publication. She’s worked with blue-chip companies, custom publishers, and tourism boards and is actively working with digital media.

• Benjamin Leszcz

  London, UK

  Benjamin Leszcz is a freelance writer and editor living in London, UK. Leszcz worked as an associate editor at Saturday Night, once Canada’s oldest consumer magazine, and Toro, a men’s magazine where he edited the style section, before joining enRoute, Air Canada’s in-flight magazine, as senior editor. Most recently, Leszcz co-launched the award-winning online men’s magazine DailyXY.com.

• Brooke Lockyer

  Toronto, Ontario

  Brooke Lockyer’s short stories, copywriting, reviews, and features on contemporary culture and the arts have been published in numerous publications in Canada, England, and the United States. A graduate from Columbia University (BA) and the University of Toronto (MA), she has also mentored children, teens, and women in literacy and creative writing programs such as Let’s Get Ready, Neighbourhood Diaries, and Sister Writes. An intrepid traveler with a penchant for adventure, Brooke has penned rejection letters for Esquire magazine in New York City, taught high school English in rural Japan, and participated in fiction workshops in Kenya, Bristol, and Montreal.

• Jesse McLean

  Toronto, ON

  Jesse McLean is an award-winning humorist and culture commentator whose disciplines include technical writing, screenwriting, film and television criticism, humour articles and sketch comedy.  These varied talents conspire to deliver incisive, thoughtful and creative copy.  He has written process documentation for BMO, dialogue punch-up for Joe Flaherty and Brigitte Nielsen, ruminations on Wilhelm Reich’s “orgone accumulator” for PopMatters, how Rainer Maria Rilke might have negotiated Facebook for Yankee Pot Roast, and the inherent difficulties interviewing zombies for Eyes on Toronto with Stephen Eyes. Impromptu dance numbers lack technical grace but brim with “pizzazz”.

• Genevieve Paiement

  Montreal, PQ

  Genevieve is a freelance writer and editor with over 10 years’ experience specializing in travel, food and other lifestyle topics. She has lived and worked in Sydney, London and Paris, and writes mainly for magazines, newspapers and the Web. Whether investigating green architecture in Las Vegas for the Globe and Mail or interviewing Gordon Ramsay about his Montreal chicken shop for the New York Times, Genevieve brings a sense of irreverence and an eye for detail. She lives in Montreal with her husband and son.

• Diane Peters

  Toronto, ON

  Diane is a full-time freelance writer and part-time journalism instructor. To all her work she brings creative story ideas, strong research skills, top-notch writing and curiosity for new topics. Her extensive experience writing health and science stories, and for the children’s book market, have given her additional skills in making dense material a great read.

• Ingrid Sapona

  Toronto, ON

  Ingrid’s been making complex business information clear since 1997. She has a journalism degree from Northwestern University and a law degree from Case Western Reserve University and belongs to the New York and Ontario bars. It was while practicing law that she realized she has a special talent for making complicated, technical information understandable.

  Ingrid works with professionals and business leaders, creating communications that satisfy strategic business and regulatory requirements. Using plain language principles, she measures success by whether people understand the issue or idea the first time the read it because if they do, they’re more likely to act on it.

  She writes a regular column called “Writer’s Edge” that appears in The Business Valuator, a quarterly publication of the CICBV.

• Alec Scott

  Toronto, ON, San Francisco

  Alec Scott is a writer specializing in the arts, travel and the law. He worked as Toronto Life magazine's arts columnist for several years, writing about painters, dancers, composers, film directors, impresarios, novelists, actors, playwrights and one puppeteer. For work, he has travelled to many places including Australia, Germany, the Shetland Islands and California. Before going into journalism, he worked as a lawyer, practicing defamation and air law, and continued to write about developments in the law, interesting lawyers and prominent cases. He has also worked as an editor for Saturday Night and Toronto Life and a producer at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

• Alexandra Shimo

  Toronto, ON

  Alexandra Shimo studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University, and then did a Master’s on scholarship at The Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, New York.

• Christopher Shulgan

  Toronto, ON

  Christopher Shulgan is the author of two books and a contributor of essays and research-intensive feature articles to numerous magazines and newspapers in Canada and the United States. He writes a parenting column for Eye Weekly and blogs frequently at www.shulgan.com. Shulgan also is an accomplished ghostwriter who can mold his writing to fit the narrative voice of any number of anonymous clients on Bay Street and in corporate Canada.

• Jay Somerset

  Toronto, ON

  Writer, editor, proofreader and copywriter—Jay Somerset has been dealing in words for nearly 10 years. Articles have ranged from an etiquette guide to Toronto to a five-part newspaper series on a Toronto advertising company to an essay on the aesthetics of AM radio. As well, Jay also has ample editing experience. Besides journalism, he also works as an advertising copywriter. He holds two university degrees, is a board member for two arts organizations and enjoys solo camping and collecting weird records.

• Heidi Sopinka

  Toronto, ON

  Heidi Sopinka is a Toronto-based writer and editor who is also the thousandth woman in the world to earn a helicopter pilot license. In 2007, she wrote “Footprint,” a weekly column for The Globe and Mail that dealt with ecological issues translated to the realm of the everyday. She writes and edits for newspapers and magazines on culture, social issues, and the environment, and is currently working on her first novel.

• Olivia Stren

  Toronto, ON

  Olivia Stren worked as an associate editor at Toronto Life magazine for three years before embarking on a freelance-writing career in 2003. While she writes for a slew of Canadian and American publications, she also teaches a course in travel-writing at University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies.

• Anna-Kaisa Walker

  Toronto, ON

  Anna-Kaisa is a Toronto-based writer, researcher and editor. Born in Montreal, she has a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University, and in her five years as a freelancer, she has contributed a wide variety of work to Canadian, U.S. and international publications.

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