About the CWG

We’re a group of writers based in Tofino and Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, Canada (although now our ranks boast several Tofino “ex-pats”).  We write fiction, non-fiction, poetry, screenplays, scripts and more, for kids and adults. We are journalists, novelists, poets, playwrights, bloggers. We publish chapbooks under the Mudflat Ink imprimatur. Some of us are published, some self-published, some have works-in-progress. All of us write for the pure pleasure of the creative act.

This is who’s punching the keyboard these days (in alphabetical order, naturally).

ADRIENNE MASON is a multi-talented writer and editor. Her works for child and adult include books on science, biology and history. She blogs at Tough City Writer. For more information, visit adriennemason.com.

BRITTANY SMITH is a writer of fiction and screenplays. Based in Toronto, Britt has made her home in Tofino, Seoul, and many spots in between. Check out some of her work at tireswingstories.com. Britt is available for hire as an editor or collaborator on many different types of projects — short and long fiction, journalism and academic writing. Contact her at brittannesmith@yahoo.ca.

CAROLINE WOODWARD has published work in five genres so far and writes in splendid isolation at the Lennard Island Lightstation, where she has lived since 2008. For more information, please visit carolinewoodward.ca.

CHRISTINE LOWTHER‘s latest book is Born Out of This, a memoir that was shortlisted for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. She has three poetry books: New Power, My Nature and Half-Blood Poems. Her poems appear in Force Field: 77 Women Poets of British Columbia, on BC Transit and in various literary presses. Christine co-edited Writing the West Coast: In Love with Place and Living Artfully: Reflections from the Far West Coast. Some of her prose appears in Wild Moments, In the Company of Animals, and Where the Nights are Twice as Long. Chris won in the creative non-fiction category of the Federation of British Columbia Writers 2016 contest, Literary Writes, for her piece “The Shaking Man.” The Pacific Rim Arts Society presented Chris with its inaugural Rainy Coast Arts Award for Significant Accomplishment in 2014. Website at ChristineLowther.blogspot.ca, Facebook author page here.

CLODAGH O’CONNELL is a writer and lawyer living in Tofino, BC. She has been an arts and entertainment writer for national magazines in London, England, and Dublin, Ireland, and a newspaper editor, columnist and critic for various Canadian media. As well she has worked as a screenwriter for episodic television. Clodagh is currently developing a television series.

DAVID FLOODY’s witness of the 1967 Detriot race riot, its extent and violence, are seared into his imagination forever. He attended Windsor’s most racially integrated high school of the time, enjoyed its diverse culture and took pride in the friendships it encouraged. His YA novel The Colour of Pride is his tribute to that time and place. David now lives in Tofino, and is a member of the BC Federation of Writers and the Clayoquot Writers Group. His first book, Kittenstein and Frankenfur—the gambling cats, reveals how mini-monsters from kitten hell can become their owner’s last hope of salvation. Both books will be available in print and ebook versions on his soon-to-be-launched website, davidfloody.com.

ERIN McMULLAN is a screenwriter and story editor of IMAX Humpback Whales 3D and Cold Paradise (OMNI TV). Her feature screenplay Lotus was an official selection of VIWIFF 2016, and received high scores in the first round of the Nicholl Fellowship competition. She’s aiming for the Athena List next. She was writer-editor for TV’s high school quiz show Reach for the Top, as well as coordinator and game producer for the televised segments on City TV and TVO. She spent 6 years on the production side of the Toronto film industry including as a member of IATSE Local 667’s Camera trainee program, camera second on Detroit Rock City and Canadian Film Centre productions. Erin has an MFA in screenwriting from UBC and is a current member of Women in Film and Television (WIFT).

greg blanchette has written on spec and on assignment for 30 years. His travel features have appeared in several magazines; his essays, articles and letters to the editor have graced newspapers  local to national. He moved from Vancouver to Ucluelet in 1998, relocating to Tofino in 2008, where he continues “hobby writing” and volunteering in the arts. His website gregblee.ca includes a blog, and samples of prose and poetry.

JAN JANZEN shares his visions and experiences from the mystical to the mundane, with love and humour as themes in a cosmic dance where no one is a wallflower.

JANICE LORE grew up on a farm in Alberta, Canada and moved to west coast of British Columbia in 1994. She works out of both sides of her brain, as an accounting contractor, as well a writer of creative nonfiction, poetry and short fiction. Her work has appeared in various anthologies and literary magazines, and on CBC Radio. Her first poetry chapbook, Ipsissima Verba (Latin meaning “the very words”), is a “found” poem about math, philosophy, definitions and a middle-aged woman’s life. In 2009, she wrote her first commissioned work, Requiem for the Fridge, a poem written on the door of a dead refrigerator. She is a founding member of Performance Anxiety, a performance poetry collective, which first presented its work to the public in December 2011. She is also a member of The Diversity Project, a performance group which explores universal themes through a tapestry of art forms. She has recently begun making handmade books to showcase her poetry. And someday her website, janicelore.ca, will be up and running.

JAN (JANIS) McDOUGALL created Tofino Stone Poetry and has handwritten her own verses on hundreds of palm-sized smooth stones. In the ’90s Jan contributed articles to Frank Harper’s The Sound magazine. Her poetry has been published in Salt in Our Blood and Crowlogue, as well as in the Westerly News and Tofino Time magazine. Her story “So, When are You Moving Back?” appears in the anthology Writing the West Coast.

JOANNA STREETLY is a long-time Tofino resident. Writer and artist, she has been editor of the long-running The Sound magazine. Her books include the kayaking guidebook Paddling Through Time, the story anthology Salt in Our Blood, and the novel Silent Inlet. For more information, visit joannastreetly.com.

LORNA WATSON, at present the lone writer from Ucluelet, writes sporadically, mostly on the winter rainy days when she can’t be in her garden — a little poetry, some stand-up jokes, and Facebook postings. She delights in the writings of her fellow CWG members, cheering them on with her enthusiastic comments, very happy to be included in such an esteemed group of writers. Favourite other poets at this time are Lorna Crosier, Shane Koycazan and Rumi!

MARION ANN BERRY writes up a storm in Victoria, where she moved from Tofino some years ago. A dedicated writer, Min’s first manuscript is off to the publishers, with several more in the works. Min blogs at marionann.wordpress.com.

SHIRLEY LANGER is a CWG founding member, now living in Victoria. The writer of many poems and pieces, she has published the locally famous Tales of Tofino collection. Her most recent work is Anita’s Revolution, an historical fiction novel about Cuba that BC Bookworld called “a marvellous novel.” More info at anitasrevolution.com.

URSULA BANKE has lived in Tofino since 1967. She is an artist, musician and writer. Her memoir, Once in a Lifetime, is now in print. Her website is at ursulabanke.com.