Guest Profile

Nancy Holmes

Nancy Holmes has published five collections of poetry, most recently The Flicker Tree: Okanagan Poems (Ronsdale 2012). This book is a collection of poems about the place, people, plants and animals of the Okanagan valley in the southern interior of British Columbia where she has lived for the past 25 years. She is also the editor of Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009).

Nancy is Associate Professor in Creative Writing in the Department of Creative Studies at The University of British Columbia in Kelowna, British Columbia. Place, community, and artistic collaboration are one of her main interests, joining her commitment to the writing and teaching of poetry and fiction. She creates, supports and curates eco-themed community-based art projects with her students and other artists. These projects include the Woodhaven Eco Art Project (http://www.woodhaven.ok.ubc.ca/ ) and with a colleague, she has established the Eco Art Incubator (http://ecoartincubator.com ) which supports ecological art in the Okanagan Valley.

Currently, she works with a colleague at Emily Carr University of Art and Design on an award-winning project called Border Free Bees (http://borderfreebees.com/) which harnesses the power of art to raise awareness and develop initiatives to protect native pollinators, especially bees, in both the lower mainland of British Columbia and the Okanagan. Nancy won the 2015 Robert Kroetsch National Teaching Award in Creative Writing for her innovative student project, Dig Your Neighbourhood, and the 2017 Creative Non-Fiction award at the Malahat Review.