I live in a small town in central BC with my husband and my dogs. I love to get outside whether that is hiking, kayaking, taking the dogs for a walk, or spey fishing for steelhead. I have had the privilege to complete several backpacking trips from the historic gold rush Chilkoot trail in the north, the Brazeau Loop, to the West Coast Trail and many in between. I have also made the trip around the Bowron Lakes circuit a couple times and fully intend to go back.
When I am not escaping to the bush I am working as a Literary Intern, bookkeeper, social media advertising, and working on my own creative writing projects. I love learning about the publishing industry and the intricacies that work within it. I love working with agencies and being able to see the publishing world from their perspective. As might be assumed by now I am an avid bookworm and I am always working on building up my own collection. Some of my favourites include Suzanne by Anais Barbeau-Lavelette translated by Rhonda Mullins, Ru by Kim Thuy, The Vegetarian by Han Kang, and I could go on.
A cliché which follows writers is that they are hopelessly addicted to coffee, and when they get the jitters (which takes a lot) they move onto the watered down version of caffeine intake, tea. Then, charged full of caffeine, the only way they can settle their mind is to counter these effects with, you guessed… Read more »
Sometimes when we start something new we need to change things in our immediate environment as well. While I am still waiting for final marks and my application to graduate to work its way through the system, I was struck with the notion that the study-space I previously loved needed a facelift. Not because it… Read more »
The last essay for the last undergrad course at AU?after four years I expected the submission button to become easier to press. This proved to be wildly inaccurate. My final essay was, at least to memory, the most difficult to send. I was closing the door on a chapter of my life, and a chapter… Read more »
CBC’s Canada Reads is an annual competition where panellists defend books that fit into a specific theme. This year the theme was growing and changing. The books that made the short list this year were Birdie, by Tracey Lindberg and defended by Bruce Poon Tip; Bone and Bread, by Saleema Nawaz and defended by Farah… Read more »
There have been continued discussions about the benefit of a call centre model of tutoring for the faculty of humanities and social sciences (FHSS). While this model has proven to be useful in certain faculties, I do not think it is a “one size fits all” solution. The FHSS is based on creative thinking, personal… Read more »
Often when I enjoy a good book at the end I am left with a book-hangover. I am left feeling satisfied at how incredible it was, and yet sad that it is over. The book-hangover can leave one feeling a sense of loss and uncertainty on how to continue. Often sitting for a moment with… Read more »
As my degree is slowly coming to its conclusion, I find myself reminiscing about how I view AU now, as opposed to the early days (some may call this procrastination). I can see a difference in myself and in how I view the world around myself. But how does AU appear? As other students beginning… Read more »
I found a picture while scrolling through Facebook, one of those times I had an essay I should have been doing instead. I found a picture of an ice berg, with the phrase that all people see is success, they do not see everything else that went into being successful: not the work, the exhaustion,… Read more »
There was a bit of controversy on the AU Facebook page this week. It is something, I believe, every student does. Though perhaps the wording is what caused a kerfuffle. A student asked for advice on lighter courses to balance out some more demanding courses. As distance education students we balance a lot in our… Read more »
On the AU app and the AU Unofficial Facebook page there have been many questions about developing a thesis statement, usage of proper grammar, how to properly format a paper, proper citations, and advice for constraining a paper within a specific word count. There is a resource available through AU that can help with these…. Read more »