Muriel Allingham
“I love the written word, and believe that a selection of words can change our world. One sentence can make us laugh, make us cry; and so importantly, make us think.”
Muriel’s passion is playing with words and imagining the lives of interesting people, understanding them, and seeing how they heal their wounds.
She is grateful to have found such a creative and talented group of writers, to share the journey of creativity and truth. There is no limit to the secret world of the imagination.
Marian Bron
Marian Bron lives just outside of the city of London, Ontario and has been writing stories and poems since she was a child. An avid reader, she has read everything from Clifton Adams to Markus Zusak. Her books—Arthur Mory, a murder mystery featuring a shoe-obsessed humanoid robot; and Picking Pockets and Picking Battles, the first two installments in a young adult spy series with a healthy dose of romance—are available on Amazon.
Catherine A. Campbell
A lawyer by training Catherine spent most of her career in senior management and executive positions in legal and educational publishing. She chaired the Intellectual Property Committee of the Canadian Publishers’ Council and consulted on copyright and regulatory issues. Catherine completed a Masters in intellectual property law in 2010 and has finished her professional certificate in Creative Writing at Western.
She is currently pursuing memoir and fiction projects and fills her spare time (procrastination) with training her Standard Poodle, Kohl, and playing classical piano.
Annie Carpenter
Annie Carpenter is a Children’s Author as well as a Communication Clerk on a busy hospital unit. The reality that at any given moment…life can be stolen away inspires her writing. She tries to shine a light of hope on such a difficult subject and was picked up by Guardian Angel Publishing for a Children’s book that deals with the grief and loss of a young child in a tender way. Livvy & the Queen Bee won runner up from the Word Guild in 2016 and Annie will be publishing the novella version in the fall of 2017.
Annie is part of a “blended family” that could provide her with enough subject matter to keep writing forever. She loves bunnies, puppies and second chances.
Find her prints at borntomakeanimprint.com
Diane Chartrand
Currently, Diane attends Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. She has a Professional Certificate in Creative Writing.
She was born in a small town in Massachusetts but has lived in Canada most of her adult life. She is a published writer of Children’s Books and is working on Contemporary Fiction projects.
See Diane’s Blog
Madeleine Horton
Madeleine Horton is a retired teacher. She is enjoying being a member of a writing group where she can try out many forms of expression. At present her focus is fiction (short stories), memoir, and creative non-fiction. She is working on a family history using some journals of her grandmother and mother. She also enjoys being a member of a Reading Group. Taking care of her dog, a horse, and feeding and observing local birds and a resident chipmunk give her great pleasure.
Maria Melillo Jones
Maria was born in a small town in Italy, Calabritto, in the Region Campania. In November 1980 her town and surrounding towns were destroyed by a major earthquake. The beautiful medieval town was brought down to dust and rubble, covering hundreds of corpses – friends, neighbours, family, young and old – too many were lost that night in just a few seconds.
Maria immigrated to Canada in 1981 to join her oldest brother. She is now a Canadian Citizen and proud to call herself one.
Poetry and writing has always been a passion, although the language doesn’t make it easier.She is currently taking courses at Western in creative writing and in September will start poetry.
Married for 33 years Maria has two children, now handsome young men.
Alison Pearce
Alison is a retired teacher whose passion has been working with young children. She worked in a number of schools across Toronto – taught courses for the Ministry of Education – and, in the final eight years of her teaching career, she was principal of the Junior Division of one of Toronto’s private schools for girls.
Several years ago, she moved from Toronto to London so that she could research her family of Elgin County. Alison’s great-great-grandfather was one of the first pioneer families of the early Talbot settlement. She wrote and published “The Pearces of ‘Little Ireland’, Tyrconnell 1809- 2009”.
A little over two years ago she took her first course in Creative Writing at Western University. In her new-found hobby, she enjoys writing fictional and non-fictional character studies of people.
Alison also belong to a book club and plays (a little) bridge with a retired group of teachers.
Catherine Richards
Catherine is pursuing her Certificate in Creative Writing at Western University and is delighted that the Forest City Wordwrights have adopted her into the group despite not living in the London area!
Catherine has always loved school and would spend all her time and savings on courses if she could. She holds a Master of Information Studies, a Certificate in Museum Management and Curatorship and a B.A. in Art History/ Celtic Studies.
Her professional work in municipal government allows her to be emersed in her passion for communities, culture, planning and policy-making. Some of her favourite things include 1,000 piece puzzles, The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch and afternoon tea with a biscuit.
She is interested in personal stories, essays and memoirs and is currently writing about her experience surviving and recovering from a ruptured brain aneurysm during the COVID19 pandemic.
Catherine lives in Cobourg, Ontario with her two loves: Johan (a human) and Lily (a husky).
Cathy Sartor
My Irish mother insisted on calling me Cathryn but, my Scottish father John Campbell preferred Cathy which is how I identify today. My three sons think of me as Mom but in the classroom, my students referred to me as Ms. Sartor. Funny how a person’s name reflects their many roles. Born in London, Ontario, I was raised in Sarnia, but returned to London to attend London Teacher’s College and to teach while my husband completed his law degree at Western University. We raised our sons in Sarnia and as they grew more independent, I commuted to London frequently, while completing my BA at Western. Encountering an empty nest, I settled in Colorado where I completed a Wilderness Studies Diploma, trained as a Museum Docent, qualify as an adaptive ski instructor and ultimately, taught Elementary School for fifteen years while at the same time completed a Master Degree specializing in Literacy Instruction for Students K – 6th grade. Following retirement in 2016, I returned to London where I find myself busy and happily engaged with London Newcomers, Tai Chi, golf, volunteering at Banting House and as a new member of Forest City Wordwrights.
Krista Vanderhoeven
Krista has had a very long journey enjoying writing, having started with poetry at the age of 14. She has turned out to be an avid reader as well, even more in adulthood, tackling two to three books at a time. She is deeply interested in human nature and experience. She is family oriented, living minutes away from family.
This individual recently discovered the creative writing courses with Western Continuing Studies, and became intrigued, discovering once again that this is what she is most passionate about. She is now working towards a certificate with this. Being in the company of other writers is nothing short of inspiring!
She has a comprehensive education and works in a library. One diploma she earned is a Library and Information Technician Diploma from Fanshawe College, and she studied mostly psychology at Brescia University College, both in London Ontario.
She has self-published two books: a book of poems (2014) and a reflection on recovery from illness (2009).
