Tell us more about your work.

I write poetry (often nature-centric) and I’m a wildlife photographer. I’m really passionate about conservation, ecology, and about sharing my encounters with wild animals through photography and writing. 

Tell us a little about how this piece came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else?

Most of my poetry starts with an image! I’m a really visual person. Lately I’ve been using my wildlife photos to inspire poetry. This poem came from a photo I took of a Great Egret fishing in our local river. Great Egrets are one of my favourite birds to see here every summer. I think they have a lot to teach us about patience.

How does your faith life/ethical outlook inform your writing? 

I believe that anything we need to learn in our personal lives, we can learn from nature, because we are nature. So, I go to the forest as often as I can, and I study the birds, the animals, and the plants. How everything co-exists, how everything is a piece of a greater puzzle. We have totally lost touch with the fact that we are part of that puzzle, too. We have created a hierarchy where we are on top. If more people spent real time in nature, instead of all our ego-centric man-made systems, there might be hope for us yet.

What life experiences have shaped your writing most?

Growing up, it was hard to be at home a lot of the time. I would take my bike and ride with my sister down to a little waterfall. We would write there. The forest was therapy. So was the poetry. 

How many unpublished and half- finished books do you have?

I’m working on a book of nature- centric poems and corresponding wildlife photos that’s due to come out this summer! Other than that I’ve been writing a young adult dystopian sci-fi with a conservation message, for the last maybe . . . seven years? Yes, I’m a card-carrying nerd, and proud of it. Maybe one day I’ll finish it, but my attention span is better suited to poetry right now!

What’s next for you?

I’m currently on maternity leave with my own little wild creature, baby Theo, so I will go back to work as an adult ESL teacher in September. This is work I’m also really passionate about, especially working with refugees. I know I will find the time to keep writing and taking photos when I can. In the meantime, my book All These Living Things, with wildlife photos accompanied by poems, is coming out in July!