Writer - J.M. Bridgeman

Writer Bio: J.M. Bridgeman

When I hand a copy of EMBERS to anyone who knows me, I have to resist the urge to insist: This is not about me, and you’re not in it. It is not exactly that age-old writer’s dilemma of having to wait until enough people die to be able to publish. It is more like the writer’s quest for that ideal reader, sophisticated enough to allow that imagination and creativity are the source of material which, hopefully, feels real, as if the writer actually experienced it all herself. As far as I’m concerned, the only “real” things in this story EMBERS are the places. And that itself is a clue, because for me, place, our attachment to place, is one of the most important aspects of our life here on Earth. So, here’s the short fast version of my life and you can see and judge for yourself what the intersections / crossroads are, where the story comes from.

I was born in Rivers. I have always and still do love the sound of that. Born in rivers. Rivers is a small town north of Brandon, Manitoba. I grew up on a farm near the village of Oak River where I attended school for twelve years. I went in to Winnipeg for university, the U of Manitoba, where I did four years of Arts (English, history, poli sci, psychology, geology) and teacher training and went back ten years later to finish my MA in English. My thesis The ‘Indian,’ the ‘Other’ in the Canadian Quest for Identity: Four Prairie Novels of the 1970s is available on line (just google the title). I taught high school English in rural and northern Manitoba and then moved back to Winnipeg, working contracts. Ten years with the federal government got me to British Columbia. Then twenty years living and writing in Hope.  I have recently downsized, selling my log “dream house” and moving into a condo in Chilliwack.

When I was a child growing up on the prairies, every second year our family drove to British Columbia to visit my mother’s relatives. This stroke of geographic luck helped instill in me my passion for Canada and a love of travel. I won a trip to Montreal as a teen. I trained in Kingston, Ontario for almost half a year. I spent one Christmas with friends in Ireland in the 1970s. I visited England and Scotland in 1989 and again in 2013. This last trip also included Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Wales. I’ve also visited Florida, Canada as far as Whitehorse, Yukon and Quebec City, and most of the northern States. I still have a bucket list which includes Newfoundland, New Brunswick, New Orleans, Hawaii, and Washington, DC.

I have been writing for publication since 1982. My poetry has appeared in CV2, Room of One’s Own, Herspectives, Beltane Papers, in a Belfast collective collection, in a variety of anthologies including Who Will Wind the Watches? (Abbotsford Learning Plus Society) and Down in the Valley: Contemporary Writing of the Fraser Valley, and in my self-published chapbook Circles of Light. I have published profiles in Sweetgrass, Pemmican Journal, FBCW Wordworks, and Prairie Fire magazines. My book reviews have appeared in January Magazine, Rain Review of Books, Geist, and the online version of Prairie Fire. My non-fiction book Here In Hope: A Natural History was published by Oolichan in 2002. I have published on line a creative non-fiction memoir on racism / reconciliation called Dancing With Ghosts: A Cross-Cultural Education  www.dancingwithghostsaneducation.blogspot.ca  I have posted a novel on Wattpad—Anything You Say—and a shorter story, A Modest Proposal. I blog at www.earthabridge.blogspot.ca and, about my novel EMBERS, at www.embersjmb.blogspot.ca Writing courses, video scripts, training workshops, and editing are services I have and do offer. My bio is listed on the BC Bookworld site at www.abcbookworld.com  EMBERS is available through Amazon and as an e-book through Kindle, Smashwords, etc.  Ask at your local book sellers, Baker’s Books in Hope, or The Bookman in Chilliwack and Abbotsford.