(camera-shy)

Ursula Vaira grew up in northern BC; after studying Education at UBC, she taught school on the northern coast and in the Arctic, then moved to Vancouver Island in the early eighties. She studied creative writing at Malaspina University-College and at workshops with Robert Kroetsch, Tom Wayman and Patrick Lane. She worked as editor, then managing editor at Oolichan Books for ten years; then founded Leaf Press in 2001.

She loves wilderness camping and kayaking, with a passion for the west coast — the summer of 2005 she kayaked from Port Hardy to Zeballos, including the dreaded Capes Cook and Scott.

Nunsulsailus (Many Hands) In 1997 she paddled by canoe from Hazelton to Victoria as part of Roy Henry Vickers' Vision Quest to raise addictions awareness and funds to build an all-nations recovery centre on Vancouver Island. Through these and other experiences she has learned the power of the arduous journey as a metaphor for self-growth. In truth, all journeys lead to the interior. Her poems are published in the journals and in anthologies published by Hawthorne, Outlaw Editions, Anvil Press, and Quills.