Things are getting real now! Countdown for my second last research trip (I think!) for my coastal erosion book - this one to explore coastal dynamics, human settlements, inequity, and vulnerability in megacities.

I spent the day tromping around Gitanyow territory in northwest BC for with fire practitioners Kira Hoffman and Isabel Bodnar as they prepare for a burn. This is done in partnership with the nation to help nudge make their forests more productive of foods and medicine. For Canadian Geographic.

Here in northwestern BC working on a story about Indigenous-led burning and have come across this gorgeous library of just a few of Canada's Indigenous language. Words, phrases, songs, recordings... www.firstvoices.com/languages

I'm so excited to see this new Lancet Commission on sea-level rise, health, and justice - The Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Eeep! (Happily this was announced AFTER noon on April 1.) My novel The Crane made it to the shortlist for the W.O. Mitchell Prize along with these two superstars. @breakwaterbooks.bsky.social

To have THE CRANE (Breakwater Books, 2025) listed as one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s top 10 must read books - alongside authors I reported with and about when I worked for CBC in St. John’s - is such a deep, deep honour. @breakwaterbooks.bsky.social

I hate that this is true, but it is. When my third kid was still in diapers, I decided to resign a tenure-track position. Instead of asking what professional supports I might need, I was asked if I was depressed. I don't want my daughters to have the same experience. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

My thanks to The Walrus for the opportunity to cover a Canadian story about sea level rise, climate change and coastal survival. On newsstands now.

The leavings of cleaning staff who still have fun at work. Stay gold!

I'm trying to compile a list of rivers that have caught on fire. Here are the ones I've found. Any others? Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China Rouge River, Detroit, US Buffalo River, Buffalo, US Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, US Cuyohoga River, Cleveland, US Bellandur Lake, Bangalore, India

My latest at @thewalrus.ca, this one about one BC First Nation trying to balance its opportunity to benefit from fossil fuels with its very real need to protect its critical shoreline from erosion. There's a lot of nuance here. thewalrus.ca/lng-pipeline...

We had such a warm crowd tonight at cSPACE for the opening reception for my photo exhibit withe Eveline Kolijn. Supportive viewers, real conversation, good cheese. HOLDING GROUND, photos of coastal erosion, will be up until the end of March in the second floor hallway.

Erasing the city.

Measles is costing the U.S. millions of dollars. The true losses can't be counted. www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-...

Last March I visited Vanuatu for my coastal erosion research. I met a group of extraordinary women and made a short doc about the realities they face with climate change. Yesterday I submitted to some film festivals — fingers crossed!

“Carceral settings function as epidemic amplifiersopens in a new tab or window. Overcrowding, rapid population turnover, and inadequate infection control intensify transmission inside these facilities.”

In this follow to my original piece about the 2025 measles outbreak in Alberta, I report on my access to information request to get numbers on perinatal outcomes related to measles. There were too many redactions to form any real picture except that bad outcomes were bring tracked and not shared.

Please join Eveline and me for our photographic exploration of coastal erosion and its impacts on places and people. At cSPACE in Calgary. Opening reception Thurs March 5 6-8 pm.

Huge news for me today! My book about coastal erosion will by published by Harper Collins Canada in 2027. This project started 2+ years ago when I found a human skull on a beach that had rolled down from an eroding graveyard and has evolved into a global exploration of risk and loss and resilience.

I love this. A beautiful elegy for ice in a warming world. @erikhoffner.bsky.social www.loe.org/shows/segmen...

Just going to leave this right here.

Thank you @mongabay.com. Thank you Santo Sunset.

This week, the man who drives the Calgary Transit bus my kid takes to school noticed one of his riders had left behind a binder. He took the binder to the school and made a point of talking to the principal to tell him how courteous the kids at his school are. This, in a city of 1.5 million. ❤️

Hey look, it's another chance encounter with wild animal! Thanks to @canadianpoets.bsky.social for republishing.

A Humanites piece we just published over at @cmaj.ca about how war continues to gut a health care system decades later. www.cmaj.ca/content/198/...

My thoughts from the ecocriticism conference on "Erosion" I attended in Galway last summer, over on Substack. #coastalerosion #climatechange #Ireland

This guy. Mark Bragg had a stroke, nearly died, went through months and months of rehab, and fought his way back to the stage. We saw him last night at The Ship Pub in St. John’s with his band The Butchers. An incredible performance in a room filled with love. Look up his music. You’re welcome. :)

Big sea on today in St. John’s.

I’m honoured to have been chosen for the Writers' Guild of Alberta’s 2026 Mentorship Program. I’ll be working to help shape Ryan’s work of literary fiction.

Overheard while waiting in line at my neighborhood bookstore. Young man speaking to (?) father: “I didn’t think there were bookstores anymore.” Then paying for my things and having the clerk ask me if I’d like to sign copies of my book. How to smash a writer’s heart and fix it right back up again.

I love this article. open.substack.com/pub/thewalru...

This fall the govt of Alberta has trammeled the rights of trans youth and striking teachers. It’s ramming through an oil pipeline to BC in spite of opposition from most coastal First Nations. I could go on. Albertans have no right to feel superior to what’s happening south of the border.

A must-read commentary about Alberta's new approach to involuntary treatment for substance use from Dr. Bonnie Larson. www.cmaj.ca/content/197/...

The CMA spent a year studying public and private health models and consulting with more than 10,000 Canadians on the balance between the two. The evidence is clear: where a parallel private health system operates, both health outcomes and access to care are worse. Learn more 👇

Doctors across Canada are deeply concerned that the #Alberta government’s proposed private care plan will leave more Albertans waiting even longer to access health care. The CMA is calling on the government to reconsider this proposal, and focus on known solutions to support public health care.

Alberta government undermined health authority to push lab privatization deal, A-G report finds. There were issues throughout the procurement process, including a failure to assess Dynalife's financial vulnerabilities, by Matthew Scace www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alber... via @theglobeandmail.com

How many private-pay surgeries are being done? Where? On whom? By whom? For what? As @monicakidd.bsky.social explains, the lack of publicly available information about private-pay surgery raises serious questions about industry accountability. thewalrus.ca/private-health-c...

Thanks to Ben O'Hara-Byrne for the opportunity to talk about Canada's recent loss of measles elimination status and the analysis I did for the December issue of The Walrus. @thewalrus.ca open.spotify.com/episode/1is9...

A family friend for decades, Arden came by today to collect scion from Mom’s apple trees to see if we can start a new generation.

What a deep honour it is to find a book I wrote included on a mural in St. John’s depicting books as buildings, and commenting on how central storytelling is to the fabric of the city and province and people. ❤️

This just out: Canada no longer holds measles elimination status. See my recent analysis in The Walrus. www.canada.ca/en/public-he... @thewalrus.ca

"Hope is more elegant than despair" open.substack.com/pub/monicaki...

My cover story for @thewalrus.ca on the measles outbreak in Alberta, now in print for the December issue. Look for it on newsstands. #measles #vaccinations #publichealth

How an urban park is like a blowhole in the ice, but for native prairie. #nosehill #calgary

Cleaning out Mom and Dad’s house we came across these classics that Dad held onto for all these years. Suddenly they are SUPER cool. ⚾️ #bluejays

Please join me tomorrow at Pages Books in Calgary as we help celebrate the launch of a bold new book about mental health research and treatment by Toronto author Marianne Apostolides. We’ll be joined by Calgary playwright Clem Martini. Thurs Oct 23, 7-9. All are welcome. @bookhugpress.bsky.social

This fiberglass steer never stood a chance. At the Cochrane Ag Society gymkhana.

I’m looking forward to serving as a reveiwer for this. www.ipcc.ch/report/speci...

Love this. ❤️ canadiangeographic.ca/articles/for... @karenpinchin.bsky.social

Thinking and writing about protecting coastal communities against storms and erosion, how could I not return to Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach (2000)?