Members – Sooke Writers' Collective

Linda Green Abraham, BA (Spec), CRI Linda has been a member of Sooke Writers Collective since 2012 and has contributed to SWC anthologies and chapbooks. She receives with gratitude the input and encouragement shared so generously by other SWC members. Her muses also have risen from memories and lessons encountered throughout her life, and from her extended family, both present and past. Being retired and living in Sooke have endowed her with the gifts of time and incentive to be still and allow the echoes of the past and the whispers of the present to hold conversation with.

Linda M. Anderson: The ebb and flow of an artistic mind can be fascinating. For Linda, it has taken many forms. She balances time with personal painting, the challenge of entering juried shows, working in several mediums, and being a workshop instructor. She teaches visually impaired artists and does critiques via the internet. She joined Sooke Writers' Collective adding Poetry, Memoir, and Prose writing to her days. Linda enjoys volunteer instructing and donates painting to all local groups that are fundraising.

Leslie Ann Bent: As a retired chartered accountant, Leslie Ann resides in the quiet hamlet of Shirley on the Juan de Fuca coast. She’s traveled to many corners of the globe and enjoys sharing her amazing experiences and adventures, but she also dabbles in fiction from time to time. She enjoys gourmet cooking, music, reading, running and cycling. She is passionate about improving literacy and has a deep volunteer history with libraries, children and health.

Jim Bottomley: A graduate of the Humber School of Writers, Jim loves collaborating with musicians to write songs. Jim’s psychological thriller novel Hypnotizing Lions, a finalist for the 2019 Arthur Ellis Award for best unpublished Canadian mystery manuscript, will be published in 2021. Jim’s short “Running with Salmon”, a finalist for the 2018 Federation of BC Writers’ Short Fiction contest, was featured on the www.StoriesLessSpoken.com podcast, episode two. You may see Jim on the Sooke trails, finding outdoor offices to write shorts and poems. His uncommon career as independent futurist and professional speaker informs his writing, providing a different perspective on our world. Link with Jim at www.JimBottomley.com/writer, or on social media.

dl clay (Deb Clay) is inspired by small moments of beauty and works with words, pattern, light, colour and texture to share those moments. She writes poetry and story, blends words into her art and thrives on experimentation, exploration and interaction with different media. These elements provide her with many languages to give voice and share a little more beauty. You can find her at dlclay.com.

Valerie Couture is a born-and-raised Vancouver Island author with a lifelong love of reading and a deep appreciation for local history. Much of her inspiration comes from her fascination with old buildings and historic homes. She prefers writing short stories and is currently working on a series featuring a young couple who solve local mysteries. Valerie is especially drawn to historical events and legends from the United Kingdom.

Tatjana Darling in choosing Sooke as her final resting place, never imagined that 2020 would be such a crappy year. Being inundated by television, news and social media on what was happening south of the border, she chose to find her own version of the truth. But the high point in 2020 for Tatjana was that Vedmack, her cat has grown to trust the hand that feeds him.

Nancy Davies moved to Sooke sixteen years ago after many years working for the Vancouver Public Library. She started in the late seventies working the switchboard, eventually moving into clerical work at a time when computers were just a rumour.

Angela Dorsey is a recovering juvenile fiction author who has turned to writing screenplays and novels to feed her writing addiction. Her first novel for a grown-up audience, SUMMER GOES NORTH (under the pen name Angie Dorsey) will be released in 2021, and more of her juvenile backlist, plus new and exciting audiobooks, are also slated for release. Read more at aydorsey.com. When she’s not writing, Angela enjoys walks along the shore with her hubby and pup, having tea with her grandkids, and fiddling with visual digital art that she would never inflict on anyone.

Jen Ebersohn grew up in Johannesburg and has lived in Canada for over 30 years. She is happy to call Sooke her home and has been through many interesting life experiences. Poetry and prose is her way of capturing fleeting moments, observations and emotions. Jen looks forward to actively pursuing writing as a much longed for vocation, excited to share stories that might make a difference. She hopes her work speaks for itself and the reader will find overlap and understanding that will be remembered.

D. K. (Doni) Eve is grateful to reside in traditional territory of T'Sou-ke people. She draws on Vancouver Island’s characters and settings in award-winning poetry and short prose published in international, regional, and local literary journals and anthologies.

Patricia Grayhall is a retired physician turned acclaimed author whose memoir, Making the Rounds, won multiple prestigious awards. Following the success of her memoir, Patricia co-authored the romance novel Golden Years and Silver Linings with her partner in 2023. Her literary range expanded with A Place for Us: A Novel, published in June 2025. Patricia's current medical/legal thriller, FRAMED, released January 2026, blends her medical expertise with compelling storytelling, marking her evolution from memoirist to a versatile fiction author. She lives with her partner in the Pacific Northwest.

Kathryn Guthrie has been lost and found, from one end of Canada to the other, and in and out of the poet’s life.
She is grateful to be in Sooke, and for the support of the Collective, two “villages” in which she is learning her craft.

W.M. Herring lives at Gleann Eilg, an acreage on the south shore of the Sooke Basin, in the traditional territory of the T'Sou-ke Nation. This homesite, with its orchard, fields, forest, and wildlife, features in much of her current writing. Her poems have appeared in ARC Poetry, Freefall, Geez, Literary Review Canada (LRC), The Nashwaak Review, Queen's Quarterly, and other journals and anthologies. Her first slim volume of poetry, A Sure Connection, is upcoming in Fall 2021, from Now or Never Publishing.

A.M. Home moved to her mountain top property in East Sooke in 2012, after an academic career in Quebec City, Montreal and Ottawa. Though still involved in scholarly writing, she is relieved to have escaped the “publish or perish” world” and learn more creative forms of writing. She enjoys living close to nature, outdoor activities, gardening and watching wildlife, except when four-footed neighbours don’t read “deer resistant” signs.

D. Lambert has been dumping her overactive imagination into sword and sorcery-style fantasy novels and shorts for decades. Her first novel, “Dragon's Voice" released in 2019, followed by the “Weapons of Espar” series in 2020/2021. In 2021, she signed with 4Horsemen Publications for the high-fantasy series "Son of No Man," and continues to deliver high-stakes, immersive fantasy with real grit. She is a staunch supporter of new authors and a firm believer in all things magical. In her other life, Dee is a rainforest-loving veterinarian from Sooke, BC, living with her husband, two sons, and four demanding felines. Visit DLambertAuthor.com

Laura Lee continues to enjoy exploring where her writing will take her. Her first published piece was in the 10th Sooke Anthology, Sooke XO and she has continued to submit a piece each year since then. Sometimes, as in this year’s story, love comes from unexpected places and changes lives. Laura Lee’s life was changed when she took a chance and drove up island to meet with the face of the profile she had only seen online. She still smiles when she recalls that day and all the days that followed. It was a journey of discovery, love, family and coming home.

Rene Low uses words to make sense of his experiences, and his three decades living on Vancouver Island and being a father to his 16 year old son inspires him to write. He hopes his small stories entertain as they offer glimpses of what he finds important.

Andrew Moore is an architect specialising in community development. He works with First Nations around BC assisting them to create a vision for their future and helping transform this into reality. He is a musician, performer and producer having worked with many musical groups in Canada, UK and Africa. He also produced 22 short films now shown on PBS, Knowledge Network, Discovery Channel, Radio et Television Quebec and TV Ontario. Andrew had beginners’ luck as a writer. CBC radio asked him to read the first story he wrote across the nation from their Victoria studio.

Lynda Moore works as a guide for lived experience storytelling in research, advocacy and policy initiatives. She plays as a poet.

P. Pallot, known as Arcade, is a queer trans-masculine Asian individual with a passion for Ryuichi Sakamoto, stargazing, Japanese films, and vintage video games. They are an avid science fiction fan, aiming to initiate a project with this year's short story.

David Reichheld: Studies in biological anthropology indicate that from our most ancient roots, grandmothers have been crucial to children’s development and learning. When we have Gramma to help teach and nurture us, we live longer and better. And this wonderful advantage is passed down generation to generation. In “Old New Ground” (anthology 11), David Reichheld explores the two-way street of learning and love between a woman and her granddaughter. Along with Nature’s gifts to nourish our hearts, love and grandmothers nourish our souls. When our children bask in such bounty, they grow up strong and wise, balanced and kind.

Lorraine Sinclair grew up in a French town on the outskirts of Ottawa. She moved to Sooke in1993. A fractured right wrist in 2017 sent her on a journey of discovery. A cell phone, social media, and the internet became a portal to the people and places of her youth. More importantly it brought back the joy of writing . A special thank you to SWC you are truly a part of this writer's journey.

Mark Smith has recently moved to Sooke. He has also recently retired and taken up poetry again after a long interval. He takes comfort in Ben Lerner’s thought that any poem tends to be insufficient; “the fatal problem with poetry: poems” (from The Hatred of Poetry). Mark is originally from Scotland, and has been a nurse, educator and community worker. He is now enjoying being a beginner, dabbler and rank amateur.

Richard Winder is a retired research scientist (forest biologist) living in Sooke. His career focused on forest biology and ecology. As a writer, ten of his stories appear in three anthologies. He self-published a space opera titled Stella, along with its companion novel Stephen. He also published the sci-fi drama Merika. His anthology New World Endings comprises 19 sci-fi and fantasy short stories and novelettes (some new and some previously published). In the non-fiction category, Richard self-published Mushrooms For All Seasons. Richard is a co-founder of the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society, and enjoys teaching people about the fungal kingdom.

C.E.M. Winstanley: Clare was born and grew up in the UK. A core member of Sooke Writers’ Collective, she is proud to have been published in its annual anthology for the past nine years and to have collaborated with Collective poets in six SWC chapbooks. After the success of publishing her own debut book of poetry, Bits of String & Thread, in 2021, she followed it with a second collection, Round the Bend & Other Places, in 2024. Listen to live readings on her author website cemwinstanley.com

more member listings and bios coming soon!

2026 Membership