Collection: Non-Fiction Anthology Authors

Authors of Sharing our Journeys 1 and 2

Agustin Restrepo

(Agustin's Story) - Born and raised in Panama City, Republic of Panama. Moved to the United States in 1979 and lived in Texas for 34 years. Attended Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Also, attended Houston Community College in Katy, Texas. Moved back to Panama in 2013. Currently living in Colombia working as a freelance Landscape Designer. Bilingual (English/Spanish) but can communicate in other languages. Eclectic background music, arts, activities (from sports to puzzles). Travelled extensively. Always have a positive attitude.

Brian Baxter

("I Always Knew") - Brian was born and raised in Nova Scotia. He’s spent many years here in British Columbia. Back in high school, all the girls loved going out with him because they knew they’d have fun...and they knew they’d be safe.

CJ Jackman-Zigante

("Black Queer Elder") - Canadian Actress raised in the east end of Toronto, Ontario. A child actor beginning at the age of seven spent four years as a regular dancer on CityTV’s Boogie before landing her first role in the feature film The Kidnapping Of The President, with William Shatner, Hal Holbrook and Eva Gardner. She has gone on to establish herself as a triple-threat entertainer adding director, producer, published author, writer, and playwright to her list of accomplishments and credits.

Claude Hewitt

("When Life Hands You Lemons") - Claude has lived in the Vancouver area since 1984 and having travelled extensively, thinks that there is no better place to call home. He has been and continues to be involved as an active supporter of LGBTQ rights as well as human rights and environmental issues that affect us all. Claude and his spouse just celebrated their 7th anniversary.

Cornel Thomas 

("Cornell Thomas' Story) - Cornell Thomas is presently in his company’s pre-retirement structure, soon-to-be fully retired with 40 years of service. He is living in the cities of Lake Charles, Louisiana and Billings, Montana, at any given time, where the newlyweds (one year as of Feb 2021) have their homes. Cornell has an A.G.S. (Associate of General Studies) and B.S. (Bachelor of Science) degree in General Studies with a major in Behavioral Science and a double minor in Psychology and English.

Cyndia Cole

("That's What Friends Are For") - Cyndia moved from the USA to Vancouver in 1970 and came out as a lesbian at 26 in 1976. Her writing appears in Basically Queer: An Intergenerational Introduction to LGBTQA2S+ Lives, Making Room: Forty Years of Room Magazine and Breakthrough. She is honoured to have worked with others to found or develop: Women’s Studies at SFU, Vancouver East Housing Co-op, humanistic Home Support, Quirk-e, QMUNITY and SGI Vancouver Buddhist Pride Group.

Fernando Esté

("In Search of Authentic Queer Sprituality") - Fernando is an Engineer, Librarian, Zen and Dru Yoga practitioner, who studies, writes, teaches, and shares the joy of living by facilitating and assisting individuals through the ancient Universal practice of Spiritual Companioning. Fernando, also an active member of the Vancouver Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, is committed to promulgate universal joy, expiate stigmatic guilt, and serve the beloved community. He is a Venezuelan American Canadian living in Vancouver, British Columbia, with Don, his partner since 1999, and Elvis, their beloved Chihuahua.

Gloria Jackson-Nefertiti

("Gloria's Story") - Gloria Jackson-Nefertiti (she/her) is a breast cancer survivor, whose 2013 diagnosis provided the catalyst for her to come out as bisexual, sex-positive, and polyamorous (because that was when she realized just how short life is). Since 2017, Gloria has been a conference presenter of workshops she created, such as, "Transcending Shame" and "We Do Not Live Single-Issue Lives (a workshop on intersectionality)." In 2014  her poem, "What is Home?" was chosen for the Poetry on Buses program as part of "2014-2015: The Writing Home Collection." And in 2017, lightning struck twice when her poem, "Give Me Water" was chosen as part of the "Your Body of Water" collection. The Boston Bi Women's Quarterly also regularly publishes Gloria's essays.

 Greta Hurst

("My Twenty-Year Plan") - On her 80th birthday, she couldn't relate to that age and came up with the "20-year plan." She'd do everything possible she wanted to do and nothing that she didn't want to do or continue with. The best decision proved to be what other people suggested. She expects the next 18 years to be as good as it is today. She's a member of Quirke (the senior queer writing group), as well as other organizations.

Harris Taylor

("Red Boot Laces - Grise Fiord") - Harris is a writer, documentary filmmaker and television producer who has contributed programming to Northern Native Broadcasting, Yukon, CBC North and Vision TV since 1991. Having lived and worked in remote locations in Northern BC, Yukon, NWT and Nunavut, she developed a deep and abiding respect for the land and Canada’s First Peoples. Much of her work has focused on the Aboriginal people, cultures and history across Canada’s north, disability issues and Queer life experience.

Jayantha Withanage

("Jay's Story") - I am Jayantha Withanage from Sri Lanka and have been living in Canada since 1996.  I like to spend my time watching TV/Movies, doing work-out, cooking different kinds of food and travelling.  I have been with my husband for 36 years and live in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Ken Sudhues

("A Life Folded in Thirds") - A fourth-generation Victorian, Ken has lived in Gibsons, Ottawa and Toronto before finally returning home to stay in 2014. He’s been out pretty much forever, which made high school and university in the 70s “interesting” if nothing else. Ken has worked in radio and the public service, with many years spent at health ministries in BC and Ontario. He is now a partner in iHabilitation Canada, a company that assists blind touch-screen users, with his spouse, Tom Dekker. Ken’s blog OurMisterNixon.Wordpress.com is a fond honouring of David Nixon who is subject of Ken's short story in this book.

Marsha Ablowitz

("My Career As a GLBT Therapist") Marsha studied creative writing at UBC in the 1960’s, and though she had several publications she realized writing wasn’t going to put food on the table. So she worked as a social worker/therapist for over 30 years. In the 1970’s she led Vancouver’s first: women’s self-defense groups, sexual abuse groups and the first lesbian support groups. Marsha returns as often as possible to the Himalayas in India and the rainforest mountains of British Columbia. Now Marsha makes a lot of cedar wood chips carving masks and is happy to be writing as part of a creative GLBT group. She also writes on Hubpages hubpages.com/profile/marshacanada

Michael Yoder

("There's No Place Like Home") - Michael has lived in British Columbia since 1969. He emerged from his closet in 1979 and took the doors off after that. Michael studied music composition at the University of Victoria and after that became involved in community advocacy. After being diagnosed with HIV in 1995, Michael joined the board of directors of the Victoria Persons Living with HIV/AIDS Society (now the Vancouver Island Persons Living with HIV/AIDS Society - VPWAS). He worked as Executive Director of the Victoria AIDS Resource & Community Service Society (VARCS) until 1996. He served on the Canadian AIDS Society board of directors from 1998 - 2003. Michael currently is a Peer Navigator and facilitator of "POZitively Connected" with VPWAS.

Oscar Hall

("I Contain Multitudes", 'I'll Pass") - Oscar Hall was born in Nova Scotia in 1963 to hardworking parents and four older siblings. He moved out to British Columbia when his father retired from the Navy and his mother longed to be back in her home province.     Bi-coastal, bi-racial, and transgendered, he seeks to know his ancestors and himself as he learns to walk the red path.

Pat Hogan

("Blame it on the Wimmin' ") - Pat was born and raised in a small New England mill town. She’s lived in New York City, Santa Barbara and San Francisco California before moving to Canada in 1969, and maintaining dual citizenship in the US & Canada. She is an organizer, writer, activist, creator/initiator of events/organizations, feminist, lesbian, dancer, communicator, witch and communitarian. She has many years of office/administrative experience and Court Reporter training. Over the years she has taken college courses and has no degrees. She is a proud mother of a son and daughter and has 5 grandchildren.

Shinji Kasama

("My Journey") - Shinji was born and raised in the central part of Japan. When Shinji was in his mid 20’s, he met his American partner, who was teaching English in the country. The bi-national, bi-racial, same-gender couple lived in Japan, moved to the United States, and finally immigrated to Canada. Shinji and his partner have become Canadian citizens, and the couple makes Richmond, British Columbia their permanent home.

Tom Dekker

("Sound and Furry") - Tom has worn several interesting hats throughout his life – musician, self-help and assistive tech advocate and instructor, interface accessibility/usability tester, vision rehab instructor and independent living skills coach. Retirement has turned his attention to creating online multi-media instructional resources that demonstrate and promote inclusive design. Tom has worked in Toronto and Ottawa, plus seven years in the US (five in NYC, two in Houston) During this time he worked with several agencies that sent him travelling to more than a dozen cities across the country. Now he is happy just to work from his beach-front home in Victoria, being entrepreneurial with his partner, Ken, fiddling with audio and music production equipment, and playing a little gig here and there.

Val Innes

("Transition - Beyond Silience") - Val is a transplanted Scot, to Winnipeg in 1958 and then the West Coast in 1991. A retired university instructor with Masters degrees in English and Education, a feminist, a writer, an artist, a builder who loves winter holidays in Mexico and summer holidays at an Ontario lake, Val cannot picture a life without politics, without an effort to make the world a better, more equal place, any more than she can picture it without books, writing, women or deep, intense talk. She has lived with that politicization as a background, teaching and volunteering in various organizations, as well as marching and protesting to help bring about positive change.