Hugh Greer was born and raised in Burnaby, British Columbia. After graduating from Burnaby Central Secondary School, he completed his Bachelor of Education degree at the University of British Columbia. He began his teaching career with the Vancouver School District in 1973. After nine years of classroom teaching, during which time he completed his Master of Education Degree in Counselling Psychology, he became a high school counsellor. Eleven years later he was promoted to the position of high school vice principal. After 35 years working in education, Hugh retired in 2009. Hugh now lives in Ladner, BC with his wife Wendy. He has two adult daughters and three young grandsons. He enjoys travelling the world, watching English Premier League Football and driving his 1969 MGB. After marking the writing of others for most of his career, at age 71, Hugh decided to venture into the realm of writing his own work. 11,000 Days at School is Hugh’s first published work.
You can access Hugh’s website here.
Jan Krijff was born in the Netherlands and emigrated to Canada in 1968. He has a BA in Economics from the University of Calgary, and a master’s degree in history, from Leiden University in the Netherlands. Jan has previously published 100 Years Ago: Dutch Immigration to Manitoba in 1893; Een Aangename Vriendschap (An Amicable Friendship); Dutch Gentlemen Adventurers in Canada (with Herman Ganzevoort), and Greetings from Canada: Postcards from Dutch Immigrants to the Netherlands 1884–1915. The latter received an honourable mention for history in the Indie Fab awards.
Karen Green was born in southern Alberta. She has a BA and an LL.B from the University of Alberta, having practiced law in Edmonton and, more recently, in Vancouver where she worked in human resources and labour relations for various organizations. For twelve years, she also served as a part-time chair of review panels under the B.C. Mental Health Act. She is the co-author of Greetings from Canada and contributed to Dutch Gentlemen Adventurers.
Living in the coastal village of Bamfield, B.C., Canada, Louis Druehl is the editor of The New Bamfielder, and is best known for his passion for seaweeds. A professor of marine botany at Simon Fraser University for 36 years, Louis conducted kelp research at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, which he was instrumental in establishing in 1968. His immense contributions to kelp research earned him the honour of having a diatom genus and a kelp species named after him. The revised issue (with Bridgette Clarkson) of his best-selling book Pacific Seaweeds Updated and Expanded has won numerous awards.
A Professor Emeritus from SFU, he is continuing to support kelp research as well as harvesting and exporting seaweed products globally with his wife Rae Hopkins.
Louis turned to serious, non-scientific writing after his retirement in 2000. His first novel, Cedar, Salmon and Weed, has earned a place on BC Book’s Map of Literary Fiction.
Susan Hyatt has enjoyed making things beautiful since she was a child growing up in the Bahamas, where she was influenced by bright, bold colours and aesthetics. Susan spent more than two decades custom-designing dream weddings in Hawaii, Mexico, the Bahamas and Vancouver.
Her love for design and entertaining sparked the beginning of Tabletops by Susan. It all started with putting together beautiful tables at home for family and friends, but now Susan hopes to inspire everyone to be more creative with how they set their tables. Susan enjoys working with clients at their homes, creating just the right tables for their special occasions or family gatherings. She also loves travelling with her husband Martin and spending time with her amazing children and grandchildren.
For more images of her stunning work, visit her website: www.tabletopsbysusan.com or on her Facebook page.
Pnina Granirer was born in Romania and immigrated to Israel in 1950. She studied at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem and came to Canada in 1965, settling in Vancouver where she has lived ever since. Her works are displayed in private and public galleries and museum collections in Canada, the US, Chile, Europe and Israel. An extensive archive of documentation on her work and life can be found in the British Columbia Artists’ Archives at the University of Victoria, BC.
Granirer has always followed her own vision, taking risks by disregarding the trends and fashions of the art world. In 1993 Granirer co-founded Artists in Our Midst, the first annual Studio Tour in Vancouver, BC. For six years she organized and hosted discussions about art via Philosopher Art Cafes sponsored by Simon Fraser University. She has been featured in several films, including Pnina Granirer: Portrait of an Artist (1989) and The Trials of Eve (1992).
In 2014 the artist was included in the encyclopedia of International Surrealism by Arturo Schwarz, Il Surrealismo—Ieri e Oggi (Italy) and in a five-page chapter of José Miguel Pérez Corrales’s Anthology, Surrealismo: El Oro del Tiempo (Spain).
A visual artist for over 60 years, Granirer has also written verse since her childhood. Garden of Words contains musings that both reflect and illuminate her paintings. The sculpted stones in the Gulf Islands, the joy of watching dancers’ bodies in movement, the shadow of a new plague, and the contemplation of being human in a complex world—all are an expression of Granirer’s wish “to plant a garden of words in [her] field of colours.”
You’re invited to visit her website: www.pninagranirer.com
Nico Roselli was born and grew up in Vancouver, BC. He graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2019 with his BA, where he majored in political science and minored in the Law and Society program. A two-time member of the President’s Honour Society in high school, he is also a recipient of the Brother J.P. Keane General Excellence Award.
Since writing Hitting Your Stride, Roselli has begun to explore a career in teaching. He currently works in Vancouver schools as a Teacher On Call (TOC). His next goal is to attend Simon Fraser University to complete the Professional Development Program for aspiring elementary and secondary school teachers. A devoted lover of sports and coffee, Roselli can be found cheering on his teams with his peers and frequenting the local cafés and pubs of Vancouver. He plans to continue writing, in both fiction and non-fiction genres.
Phil Nealy is a career counsellor with a long history of working with students to help them find new directions. He currently acts as the senior admissions advisor for the Victoria campus of Sprott Shaw College.
Following a diving accident, Nealy was diagnosed as quadriplegic who would need a lifetime of constant care. Refusing predictions of his limitations from doctors, he strove to regain movement. He now lives independently, spending his leisure time exploring nature across Vancouver Island, swimming and snorkelling in the Caribbean.
He lives in Langford, BC.
Rose Ngo is an experienced middle school teacher and mother of twins. Driven by her desire to positively connect with others, she takes time to volunteer, listen and care for those in her community. As an educator, her goals include imparting her love of learning and building confidence in her students. In addition to her primary job functions, Rose is committed to her promise to Christ in helping make our world a better place.
Wilson Ngo was an honest, charismatic and caring team leader and phenomenal friend. He thrived on his love for watching movies and good eats. As a dedicated husband and father, he hoped to impart his wisdom and love for life with his children. One of his final goals was to walk along side fellow colon cancer patients to not only provide mental support, but also spiritual sustenance. Wilson will always be remembered for not only being loyal and dependable, but also as one who always to stood up for what was right.
Sean Nosek has spent decades mastering the art of wandering. He has a particular affinity for back alleys, bookstores, and vintage shops. A former literature teacher, he is currently Assistant Superintendent of West Vancouver Schools. Sean is inspired by great works and great ideas, and believes wholeheartedly in “the creative life.” His blog, Zen for a Crazy World, has received international acclaim. He makes his home in Vancouver, Canada. He is happily married and the proud father of two daughters.
Ken Foster is a Vancouver artist who has spent more than two decades hocking his art on the street in order to survive. Born in 1970, the artist was adopted by a family in Ottawa, who brought him to Delta in 1978. During his teen years, skate culture drew him in: “it had the right degree of danger and was suitably badass and anti-authoritarian.” Best known for producing work on found material, Ken has become something of a local legend. At one low point, he spent eighteen months sleeping in an alleyway. Today, his followers consider his alleyway paintings to be iconic.
Johnny May’s Biology degree, his years at IBM as a programmer analyst, and his three decades as a practicing Medical Doctor uniquely qualify him to write this book. He knows people, he knows science and he knows computer systems. He also has a boundless imagination.
As a singer songwriter he has written songs for well known Canadian artists and has released two CDs and a recent single “This Way” which is popular on YouTube.
His time is divided between his rural farm property near Toronto and the south of France.
Johnny May Words and Music website.
Linda Dayan Frimer is an internationally recognized artist whose work addresses questions of culture, memory, trauma and reverence for the natural environment. She is a celebrated facilitator and painter who produces cultural, commemora- tive, educational and esthetically powerful contributions, and whose artworks have been described as “impactful,” “stun- ning,” “emotionally moving,” “enthralling” and “meaningful.”
Born in the wilderness town of Wells, British Columbia, from a young age Frimer was immersed in in the wonder of the forest, rivers and mountains. It was in these formative years, surrounded by the awe-inspiring natural landscape, that Frimer developed her creative vision. It was also during these early years when she first learned of war and cultural suffering. Becoming determined to champion and protect the sanctity of all life forms, Frimer turned to the creation of art as her natural medium.
Frimer’s artworks have repeatedly been called upon to represent—through fundraising, awareness and education—the work of environmental organizations, such as the Trans Canada Trail, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, who promote Canada’s vast cultural and geographic diversity, wilderness preservation and the interdependency of nature and wildlife, and spread knowledge about endangered species. Paul George, former Director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, has offered that perhaps equally important to the fundraising, Frimer’s work “touched upon the emotional and spiritual cords, where real change occurs.”
Alongside Frimer’s artworks championing the environment, significant collections and donations of her works have support- ed Margaret Laurence House, Canadian Red Cross, Canadian Cancer Society, Vancouver General Hospital, Richmond General Hospital, Children’s Hospital Foundation, Wells Community Hall and the Vancouver Art Gallery, among others. She is the recipient of many awards, including an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of the Fraser Valley. Her murals illuminate hospital walls, synagogue sanctuaries and university corridors, where it has been said they “offer healing colours that contain emotional, life enforcing light, a calming rhythmic movement and imaginative forms that are visionary.”
Frimer has facilitated cultural healing workshops between various cultural groups. She is co-founder and facilitator of the Gesher Holocaust Project, in which she developed techniques and worked with multi- generations of Holocaust survivors and their children to release trauma through art. This project resulted in the creation of powerful commemorative works of art that were exhibited throughout major cities in North America under the auspices of the Montreal Holocaust Centre.
Frimer is co-author of In Honour of Our Grandmothers: Imprints of Cultural Survival, a collaboration between two Jewish and two First Nations artists and poets that brought together research and creative exploration as a means to process trauma associated with cultural oppression and at- tempted genocide. In her book A Wilderness Journey, Frimer explores the inextricable link between her own ancestral story, her love of the wilderness and cultural resilience.
You can view more of linda’s book here.
Jim Kerr was born in 1945 and was brought up in Kelowna, BC. He attended the University of British Columbia out of high school and dropped out after his first year to hitchhike through Europe and North Africa with his best friend, Blair Campbell.
Soon after, Jim returned to earn an arts degree in economics at UBC, after discovering his knack for quick calculations at currency-exchange booths over the course of his journey. He has lived in Vancouver, BC, ever since and enjoys golfing and travel during his retirement after a successful career as a partner in a national chartered accounting firm.
After many years boring his close friends and family with countless stories of his epic voyage, he committed to writing Meet Me in Cairo at their behest. Jim is married to his wife, Kelly, and has three daughters and one son. He currently spends a quarter of the year travelling around the world, often arranging adventure bike tours with friends to far-flung places such as Chile and Myanmar.
You can read more about Jim and his latest book here.
