Lori is a natural and accomplished author, educator and performer. Her premiere picture book, “aRHYTHMetic” came out with Gumboot Books in 2009 in both French and English. “The Second Sight”, a short story for young adults was published in an edition of “Chameleon Magazine” and is now being extended into a novel. As artist in residence at West Point Grey Community Centre in Vancouver she wrote a book exploring the area’s living history and designed a photo and story mural. She collaborated on Portrait V2K, the City of Vancouver’s Millennium Project gathering and writing stories for “A Hurricane in the Basement”, a book celebrating life in Vancouver.
From a family of Seanchai (sean-a-hees or Irish storytellers), Lori derives much of her inspiration from stories hailing from an oral tradition or from personal experience. Look for her upcoming picture book, “Percival and the Polar Bears” featuring the lively protagonist Percival Persnickity as he attempts to participate perfectly in North America’s largest Polar Bear Swim. “Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On”, co-authored with Kari-Lynn Winters and illustrated by Peggy Collins is an inspired math poetry book which came out with Fitzhenry and Whiteside in January 2015. It recently won the People’s Choice Award at the Rainforest of Reading Festival in St. Lucia. They have now added two new picture books to their STEAM poetry series, “Hungry for Science Poems to Crunch on” and “Hungry for the Arts Poems to Chomp on” available on Amazon and at your local book stores.
Passionate about combining learning with the arts, Lori founded the Tickle Trunk Players in Vancouver and has been using theatre, storytelling and rhythm to encourage students to make active and creative connections to literature for close to a decade with her own company, as a Mentor Artist with the Royal Conservatory’s Learning Through the Arts Program and as a Mentor Artist with the Creative Writing for Children Program. She has performed at both the Richmond and Vancouver International Children’s Festivals as well as at hundreds of schools and community festivals and is available to make school and professional development appearances. She currently has seven plays in repertoire.
Lori is a past president of CWILL BC, a member of the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable, on the ArtStarts roster as an artist in residence, is an artist educator with Vancouver Biennale a founding member of youthLEADarts Inc. and of course, remains a loyal member of the Vancouver Polar Bear Club. She loves working in schools and communities as an Artist in Residence. Some recent projects include: “The Story Fence” at Brighouse Elementary in Richmond, “Techno-poet-ology” at Star of the Sea Catholic School in White Rock and a full school residency focusing on the unit, “How We Express Ourselves” at Brockton Preparatory School in North Vancouver.