AUTHOR: Kari-Lynn Winters
Kari was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. Her urge to travel and explore different cultures has led her to live in locations all across North America, including (in roughly chronological order): St. Catharines and Toronto, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; Ottawa, Ontario; Chapel Hill, NC; Grants Pass and Ashland, OR; and Barrie, Ontario. She now lives in Vancouver, BC with her husband Jonah, son Liam, daughter McKenna, and two cats, Cali and Jamaica. She attends the University of British Columbia as a Ph.D. candidate and instructor in the Language and Literacy Dept.
Kari enjoys being in the classroom, as a student, a teacher, and as a presenter. She has recently completed her masters thesis on exploring the efficacy of using the arts to strengthen less proficient students’ reading comprehension (part of her multimedia thesis presentation is available online). Before that, she taught in North Carolina for three years and in Toronto for 2 years. Kari holds a teaching degree from the University of Toronto, in regular and special education for children ages 3-13. She is also a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada (in Montreal), where she earned a certificate in technical theatre.
Orca Book Publishers recently published Kari-Lynn’s first picture book, Jeffrey and Sloth (2007), a tale about a boy who has writer’s block and the imaginary creature he creates to help him write his story, which has received many positive reviews and was a top-10 finalist for the Blue Spruce award. Two other picture books have been accepted for publication, Runaway Alphabet (Simply Read Books, forthcoming 2009) and Punctu-ACTION (Gumboot Books, 2010).
Kari didn’t always consider herself a writer. In fact, many of her elementary school years were spent either resisting composition or struggling to write. It was her love of storytelling and children’s literature that brought Kari to try her skills at writing. Kari’s love of children’s literature continues to grow as she practices writing as a reader, and reading as a writer.
Read more about Kari-Lynn Winters on her official website.
