FBCW Staff Alli Boyd
Alli Boyd is a writer, artist, and community builder. She has an MA in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University, where she was awarded a Canada Graduate Research Scholarship for her thesis about representation in popular media through the lens of the Canadian TV program, Degrassi. Alli is currently shifting from academic to creative writing and is working on an auto-fiction novel set in 1999. Alli lives on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Lekwungen/Songhees People in Victoria, BC. Find Alli online at substack.com/@allithewriter and @allithewriter on Instagram. | Bryan Mortensen
Bryan Mortensen is a writer, traveller, and arts administrator. He has extensive experience programming and facilitating workshops for writers of all genres and levels, having earned a degree in English from the University of Alberta with a minor in Philosophy. His recent work, Ambition, was long-listed in the 2023 Three-Day Novel Writing contest. Bryan has assumed numerous leadership roles in nonprofits as he is passionate about advocacy, especially for and with equity-seeking peoples. Nine out of ten of Bryan’s friends describe him as fun and/or exhausting—and the tenth one doesn't count. | Rachel Muller
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Alex Masse
Alex K. Masse is a writer, musician, and storyteller from what is colonially known as Surrey, BC. As the Federation's Programming Mobilizer, they hope to make the written word exciting and accessible to all who give it a shot. For Alex, storytelling is a means of expression and connection, and they recently celebrated their debut production as a playwright, Faye's Room, with Glitch Theatre. When not writing, they're making music, and when not making music, they're writing. Occasionally, though, they can be found cozied up with their cat and a good fantasy novel. | Maylon Gardner
Maylon Gardner loves puns and is a self-described word nerd who lives to create meaningful connections by sharing stories and strife, as well as engaging in community building. She wears many creative hats, from editor and writer to event planner, and brings all of that experience to bear in her roles as Legacy & Sustainability Developer with the Fed. Having worked for years on corporate documents, Maylon has been transitioning to manuscript assessment and developmental editing to better focus on story scope and structure. She is a graduate of Western University (HBA English and Comparative Literature and Culture) and Toronto Metropolitan University (Publishing Certificate) and has a smattering of other credentials in personal training and the French language. She thinks learning is fun and celebrates curiosity. | AJ Gordon
AJ Gordon knows words, numbers, and technology. Conservative with money and radically progressive everywhere else, as a poet and writer cross-trained in business, philosophy, and editing, they found a natural fit as the Federation’s bookkeeper. When not focused on financial spreadsheets or technical guides, they are working on their latest fiction and art, building websites, and gaming … often all at the same time. |
Emma Turner
Emma Turner is a voracious reader, rarely seen without a book in hand. Originally from Norwich, England, she moved across the world in 2018 and now lives on Vancouver Island. When she isn’t reading or working for the Federation, she is tutoring students from K–12, where she specializes in teaching Phonics, Literacy, and English. | Diana Skrepnyk Diana previously led marketing and communications design teams at Royal Roads University, and for many years, at the Banff Centre. Her superpower is visual communications, combining a writer’s finely crafted words with graphics and/or images to create messages that attract and inform readers. Diana’s writing prowess is mostly limited to short catchy headlines, but she loves to read—there are always a handful of books on her night table. She also makes visual art, mostly of birds, is big on community gardening, and enjoys riding trails and running errands on an old lady bike named Ally. | Jennifer Sommersby
Jennifer Sommersby is a freelance editor (via Plumfield Editing), publishing mentor, educator, and author of a baker’s dozen books written under Sommersby and Eliza Gordon, including award-winning YA and best-selling rom-com titles. Through her company SGA Books, Jennifer supports indie authors with publishing resources and hands-on teaching, as well as branding, design, and custom merch through Bard & Bloom. Her first nonfiction series geared toward early-career writers will publish in 2026. |
FBCW Board Tara Avery
Tara previously served as the Treasurer of Editors Canada and (variously) the Chair, Treasurer, and Communications Co-Chair of Editors BC, Editors Canada's local branch. She believes in the power of words to inspire, unite, and entertain. Mostly, she’s thrilled to have achieved her childhood dream of working with them for a living. Tara is currently working on at least three novels, a play, the occasional poem, and likely several other projects she's forgetting right now. | Cindi Jackson
Cindi Jackson is a professional editor and graduate of the SFU Editing program. She is a former Canadian police officer with a background in criminology and psychology. She loves reading, writing, and editing mysteries, thrillers, police procedurals, historical, and mixed-crime genres. She also edits memoir and certain nonfiction works. Cindi is a member of the Federation of BC Writers, Editors Canada, and the Crime Writers of Canada. Cindi has served as a juror for the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence. | Glenn Mori
Glenn Mori holds a master’s degree in music composition, works as a CPA, and plays in local jazz groups, but devotes most of his free time to writing and editing fiction. He teaches beginning and intermediate fiction, and his published work ranges from 500 to 22,000 words, with appearances on CBC and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. He has also served on the boards of the Vancouver Fringe Festival and PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. |
Tara Avery has worked as a writer, editor, ghostwriter, and writing coach/book therapist for over twenty years. She holds a BFA in Theatre, Film, and Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. In 2025, she was a finalist for the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence.
Cadence Mandybura
Cadence Mandybura is a writer and editor who joined the Federation of BC Writers in 2016, shortly after moving to BC from Alberta. She volunteered at the Federation’s 2022 Summit, then took the helm of WordWorks magazine for four issues between 2022–23 and helped launch the Federation’s Roots to Branches anthology series. Cadence’s speculative fiction has appeared in Metaphorosis, Pulp Literature, and Tales & Feathers, among others. She is a graduate of the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University and a past associate producer for the fiction anthology podcast The Truth. By day, Cadence works for the people of BC as a stakeholder relations coordinator in the BC Public Service. She is grateful to live in Victoria on the land of the lək̓ʷəŋən People, known today as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. | Kare Rae
Kare was born in January 1982, in the small northern town of Fort St. James, British Columbia, Canada, the traditional territory of Nak’azdli Whut’en. She was raised alongside her older sister by their loving parents. Kare happily said ‘I do’ in 2001, and in 2006–2007, she moved to Kelowna to obtain a Diploma in Applied Psychology and Counselling. After returning home, she started her career with Nak’azdli Whut’en and found an appreciation for and acceptance of her heritage as an Okanagan Indian Band Member. After several years, Kare and her husband opened their own business managing and operating a multi-faceted farm. Several years later, they closed the company and settled into a home overlooking the Stuart River. Kare says when she started writing again at age forty, she developed the slogan 'write unapologetically.' This helped her work through her fear of judgment, and craft scenes and story lines that would’ve otherwise kept her stuck in writer's block. | Allison Finley
Allison Finley is an award-winning author of children's and speculative fiction, as well as a freelance editor, story coach, and writing teacher. She has a degree in creative writing from UBC and lives in Metro Vancouver. She is also a maker of things, be it baked goods, 'zines, or crafts. For more about Allison and her endeavours, visit authorinorbit.com, or find her on various platforms at linktr.ee/authorinorbit. |
Kyle Hawke
Kyle Hawke has written and edited for newspapers, magazines, radio, and books, as well as performing and publishing as a poet. Active with various literary nonprofit groups, he founded the Bohemian Caress and Voice on Canvas interdisciplinary performance series, incorporating poetry, music, and live painting. Kyle’s poetry is juxtaposed with the art of Wade Edwards in their book, whispers of humanity. He co-wrote I Won’t Stand for This!, the memoir of Phil Nealy, due out in Spring 2026. Currently, he is working on a graphic novel with artist James Picard, a novel, and a creative nonfiction memoir. | Suzanne Venuta
Suzanne is an Award-winning mental health educator, advocate, consultant, and inspirational speaker. Writing from lived experience, she was featured on CBC Radio's “Our Front” program, and has been published in the magazines Insite's and Visions. She has written blogs on living with a mental health challenge and has been a guest on many podcasts. In 2022, Suzanne was a speaker at TEDx Surrey. She received an overwhelmingly positive response to her talk “The Legacy of Connection.” As a writer she wears many hats, writing nonfiction, fiction, and works for children. Her motto is "So many stories to write, so little time.” She is presently focusing on a memoir. In her spare time, she enjoys writing, gardening, and hiking. A quality cup of tea is very important, especially when writing or standing by the ocean watching the sun come up. |
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