novelist, freelancer and travel writer
-Mom?
-Yeah?
-What are you doing?
-Writing my bio.
-What’s that?
-A summary of my work and life?
-Can I read it?
-Sure.
-This isn’t very good.
-Well, do you think you could do better?
-Yeah.
-Written by Isla Blue-
My mom’s writing career began when she was 27 years old. She had entered a “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” contest. She won with her very interesting summer story about when she went backpacking to Costa Rica and a sloth fell in her dinner.
Her first published novel was The Prairie Bridesmaid (Key Porter Books, 2008) and she co-wrote Don’t Try This At Home: One Family’s (mis)Adventrues Abroad(Turnstone Press, 2019) with her husband, Robert Krause. This travel memoir is about our trip around the world and all the strange and funny events that occurred. She is currently working on a new fiction novel and adapting her work for television. She is also a freelance and travel writer who has written in The New York Times, Washington Post, Globe and Mail and Today’s Parent.
My mom has three university degrees. Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Education and she got her Masters Degree in Creative Writing so she can have more degrees than my dad. She also completed the Television Pilot Writing Intensive at the New York Film Academy.
Her books have been nominated for and won many awards.
She lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba with her husband, Rob, two kids- one of which is me, Isla and my brother Oskar, and our cat, Craig, who has FIV which is HIV for cats. My mom works her butt off to make sure her writing is joyful and funny to read. She is kind, funny and worth reading plus she gives great cuddles.
Screencraft Cinematic Book Honourable Mention
Vancouver International Women in Film Festival Screenplay Competition Quarterfinalist
Kobzar Literary Award ($25,000) Unbound: Ukrainian Canadians Writing Home (one of seven contributors to the book)
Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Author, The Prairie Bridesmaid
Shortlisted by public voting for CBC/McNally Robinson Manitoba Reads Competition , The Prairie Bridesmaid
Honourable Mention - Foreward Magazine - Best General Fiction – The Prairie Bridesmaid
Launch Pad Prose Competition - Shortlist
Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award – Finalist, The Prairie Bridesmaid
John Hirsch Most Promising Manitoba Writer – Finalist
Writers Union of Canada Emerging Short Fiction Award
Larry Turner Award for Creative Non-Fiction
Canadian Author’s Association North of 55 Writing Competition – Runner Up
National Screen Institute Writers Roundtable – Script Finalist
