Writers in Our Midst #31

Program details:

Writers in our Midst (WiOM) is a popular reading series of fiction, poetry, and performance. This family-friendly affair is back with a Young Adult edition. Join us for a chance to hear and meet local authors:

Mallee Stanley is a B.C. writer whose first novel set in Uganda, You Can’t Clap with One Hand was published in 2025. She lived in East Africa and will soon publish her second novel set in Tanzania. Although she now calls Canada home, she has lived overseas in Africa, Asia, and Australia for over forty years, so her writing has an international flavour. She has completed five historical fictions set in East Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Canada with a through line dealing with racism and patriarchy. She often writes in women’s voices, and her stories are inspired by personal experiences during her travels.

Tracey Schaeffer just can’t settle on anything. She was born in New York but raised in Winnipeg. Ms. Schaeffer moved to Toronto to study Theatre before dropping everything to travel through Asia, spreading her love of English through conversation classes. Tracey landed in Vancouver for a brief stint as a TV Professional but never left. After a slight detour east, she found Port Moody.

Finally, even she can admit that she's settled. Just in time to discover her real passion: writing about herself. Her personal essays have appeared on the CBC News website and in the Globe and Mail. Tracey was a recipient of The City of Port Moody Arts Award In 2022.

Gisela Woldenga is an author and an actress living in Coquitlam. She is the author of numerous short stories, children’s stories, poems, and nine recent fiction novels and working on number ten. She is a long-time member of the Tri-City Wordsmiths and the Port Moody Creative Writing Group.

Krista Wallace (she/her) is a fantasy writer, musician, audiobook narrator, podcaster, mum, Gran; a lover of pie, dark chocolate, soup, and fine single malt scotch. She hails from Port Coquitlam, where she sings jazz and tap dances (not usually at the same time). She is the author of the Gatekeeper fantasy series (books 4 & 5 coming out in the new year), an urban fantasy comedy romance, Griffin & the Spurious Correlations, and stories in Pulp Literature, Heart's Kiss, electricspec, and 49th Parallels. Learn more at kristawallace.com. 

Location: ParkLane Room