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Heather Conn, B.A., M.F.A. (in progress) is a Canadian author, writer/editor, writing instructor and coach. She co-wrote Vancouver’s Glory Years (Whitecap Books) and has written for more than 50 magazines and books in North America.

Biography

Early history and education

Conn was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, but grew up in Toronto, Ontario. After attending Neuchâtel Junior College in Switzerland, she graduated from the University of B.C. in 1981. Conn served as co-editor of UBC’s tri-weekly student newspaper The Ubyssey in 1979-80. She is currently completing an MFA degree in creative nonfiction writing at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland.

Media and communications

Conn’s Canadian writing credits include Canadian Geographic, The Georgia Straight, BC Business, Select Homes, and dozens of other publications, following brief stints as a reporter at The Edmonton Journal and at The Vancouver Sun. She has written for U.S. sources such as Sierra and PhotoMedia, and for alternative media such as Alive Journal, Shared Vision, Common Ground, and Balanced Life.

Conn wrote and edited a variety of business and promotional materials as corporate communications manager for BC Transit and editorial director for Century Communications Corporation. She was editor-in-chief of the magazine PeopleTalk for the BC Human Resources Management Association from 2003 to 2008.

As a freelancer, Conn has edited newsletters, United Nations reports for EcoPlan International, and books such as Vancouver, Howe Sound & the Sunshine Coast (Harbour Publishing) and Burnaby – A Proud Century! (Opus Productions Inc.).

Her photographs have appeared in juried and non-juried exhibitions across British Columbia, in numerous magazines, and in books including Bella Coola (Harbour Publishing), White Spirit Bear (Hancock House) and Vander Zalm: From Immigrant to Premier (Harbour Publishing).

Teaching, travel, and TV

Conn began her teaching career at the Kootenay School of Writing in Vancouver, then went on to teach full-time in an intensive graphic communications program at Selkirk College in Castlegar, BC. She has taught evening writing courses at the Vancouver School Board and Simon Fraser University at Harbour Centre. Conn gives writing classes at the Sechelt campus of Capilano University. She has taught creative writing to adults with mental illness for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority in Sechelt since 2003. She is a trained facilitator in the SoulCollage™ process.

For more than a decade, Conn participated in Vancouver’s thriving independent film scene, taking diverse screenwriting courses and workshops. With director Steve Rosenberg, she co-wrote two short films Divine Waters and Corona Station, for Bravo! TV and wrote segments for the children’s CBC Television show Hopscotch. She sat on the board of the Sunshine Coast Film Society in 2007.

As an oral historian, Conn conducted interviews with residents of northern Ontario for the Ministry of Natural Resources to document the human history of Wakami Lake Provincial Park. To assess the impact of tourism on Peggy’s Cove, N.S., she did an oral history study for the Atlantic Center of the Environment (ACE) and served as publicist for a seabird conservation project with ACE’s subsidiary, Quebec Labrador Foundation.

An ardent traveller, Conn toured southeast Asia solo for a year, summiting the Himalayan peak Stok Kangri (20,135 feet) in northern India in 1990 with a small group of climbers. She spent six months in Mexico and Latin America, travelled across western Europe and Scandinavia, and visited Budapest, Hungary and the Czech Republic. She has gone coast to coast in Canada and the U.S.

A resident of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast and Vancouver, Conn sits on the board of Vancouver’s Workplace Centre for Spiritual and Ethical Development.

Bibliography

Conn conceived, researched, and co-authored, with Henry Ewert, the photo history book Vancouver’s Glory Years (Whitecap Books). She created, wrote, and edited Vancouver’s Trolley Buses 1948-1998: Celebrating a Half-century of Service for BC Transit with consultant Emerald City Communications.

Her nonfiction writing has appeared in the books Colourguide: Vancouver and Victoria (Formac Publishing) as travel/tourism; The Greater Vancouver Book (Linkman Press) as historical research; Supernatural Stories Around British Columbia (Penticton Writers and Publishers) as personal essay; and Chasing Halley’s Comet (Laughing Willow Press) as travel memoir.

Awards

Conn won a B.C. Festival of the Arts writing competition and was a finalist in the Writers’ Union of Canada Prose Contest. Conn is a two-time winner of the Lighthouse Award for Writing Clarity from Southam Communications Inc. As part of a winning team for Coast Mountain Bus Company in 2001, Conn received the Dalton Pen Communications Award of Excellence.