Angela has worked as
a street youth worker, suicide and rape crisis
counsellor, bookkeeper, with teenaged prostitutes
and in Eaton's meat department. She's also worked
as a publisher's sales representative for the
Literary Press Group, as a freelance publicist
and facilitator of creative writing workshops.
She is author of walking
inside circles (Ragweed Press, 1989)
a poetic narrative about healing from sexual abuse
and a book of poetry no
visual scars (Polestar Press, 1993) which
deals with women’s sexuality, abuse and
transcendence in love. She and poet Penn Kemp
have collaborated on a book, Sarasvati
Scapes (Pendas Productions, 2001) about
their travels on a Buddhist pilgrimage in India.
She has a few works in progress, a book of spiritual
ruminations and meditations entitled St. Teresa:
Mystic as Mentor, and pearls and forbidden
fruit, a book of poetry dealing with love,
unrequited love and grief.
Over the past two decades
Angela has been guest editor of the Capilano
Review, co-editor of (f.)Lip, JAG,
Island and Writing literary magazines
and has had her poetry, book reviews and articles
published in numerous Canadian journals and anthologies
including The Vancouver Sun, Shared Vision,
Prairie Fire, CV2, Fireweed, Paragraph, Brick.
She is an alumni of the now defunct David Thompson
University Centre which she attended in Nelson
B.C. in 1983-84 before the Social Credits shut
the fine arts school down. From 1993-1995 she
sat on the National Council of the Writers' Union
of Canada as the BC/Yukon regional representative
and was involved in 1994 in the Writing Thru'
Race conference that the Union sponsored that
year. She participated in numerous International
Feminist Bookfairs, Montreal (1998), Barcelona
(1990), and Melbourne (1992). Her most recent
project (2003) Melisma:
Buddhist Pilgrimage in India, is a recording
of her latest book to CD, co-authored with Penn
Kemp, produced by Stephen Fearing, Ajmer Rode
(translator) and Kiran Ahluwalia (composer/singer).
In the early nineties
Angela's life took a turn towards things spiritual
and she began serious Buddhist study. She travelled
to India (1996, ‘98, ‘00) on pilgrimage,
to study with the Dalai Lama and journey throughout
Southeast Asia. Her current writing is reflective
of this path. She sat on the Interfaith Committee
for Corrections Canada, was Buddhist Chaplain
to women at the Burnaby Correctional Institute,
is Past President of her Tibetan Buddhist Temple
and taught meditation and philosophy at Zuru Ling,
a Buddhist centre in Vancouver, and out of her
home. She was the
Co-ordinator for the Spiritual Talk for His Holiness
the Dalai Lama’s visit to Vancouver in April,
2004. Currently she guides/advises people in recovery
from alcohol addiction. sits on the Board of the
(newly formed) Interspiritual Center of Vancouver,
and prepares income tax for self-employed artists.
She is committed to anti-sexist and anti-racist
work both in her writing and in the community.
She is currently teaching
meditation and Buddhist philosophy.
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