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Our Team


Tradewind Books is dependant upon the contributions of its editors, interns and designers.

  • Editors

  • R. David Stephens, MA
  • R. David Stephens is the Senior Editor for Tradewind Books and an Associate Editor for Granville Island Publishing. He currently teaches courses in fiction editing at Simon Fraser University and 'Second Draft' at the University of British Columbia. He has also instructed at Tufts University, the University of San Francisco and Shoreline Community College. His children’s book, My Animal Friends was chosen by the BC Ministry of Education to be given to 40,000 pre-school children as part of their Ready, Set, Learn Program. He has won the Irving Prize for American Wit & Humor from the University of California at Berkeley for his short story You Can Forget Hemingway. His screenplay adaptation of The Bone Collector’s Son has been optioned for production.

 

  • Alison Acheson
  • Alison Acheson has taught in the Creative Writing Program at UBC, and her students' works have been published by Penguin, HarperCollins, Groundwood, Orca and Tradewind Books among others. Her fourth novel, Molly's Cue, was released in May 2010, and her picture book, Grandpa's Music, was released by Albert Whitman in the fall of 2009. She offers courses in writing for children, elements of writing, a novel workshop, and others, through her site www.writerswebworkshop.com.

 

  • Mary Ann Thompson
  • Mary Ann Thompson still remembers the thrill of reading stories by Lloyd Alexander, Leon Garfield, Ursula Le Guin and Rosemary Sutcliff when she was a child. She has a degree in Canadian Studies from Simon Fraser University and studied acting at Studio 58. In 2005 and 2006, she told stories as a TaleSpinner at the Vancouver Children's Festival. She has worked with authors in a variety of genres, is an avid reader, likes to splash about with paint, muck about in the garden and is a fan of libraries, bookstores and the CBC.


  • Cynthia Nugent
  • Cynthia Nugent is a children’s book author/illustrator whose awards include the BC Achievement Award for Early Literacy, the Saskatchewan Shining Willow and the Alberta Book Industry Title of the Year. Her novel Francesca and the Magic Bike was shortlisted for numerous awards including the BC Book Prizes. She is listed in the Canadian Who’s Who and all of her books have been included in the CCBC’s Best Books for Kids and Teens. 
  • Cynthia has a B.A. (cum laude) in English. She has been profiled in print and on radio and television, and is a much-requested visitor to schools and libraries for her lively presentations on the making of a children's book. She has acted as judge for literary prizes, and taught continuing studies courses in Writing Children’s Fiction and Writing Picture Books at Langara College. She belongs to the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Association of BC, The Writers’ Union of Canada, and the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable. She is currently writing a novel about an ten-year-year old newspaper fanatic while working on her master’s in children’s literature at UBC.

  • Interns

  • Ania Jaraczewski
  • Ania is an editing intern at Tradewind Books. She graduated from UBC with a BA in English Literature, and has an Editing Certificate from SFU's Writing and Publishing Program. Like her own childhood literary heroine, Dorrie the Little Witch, her socks never match.

 

  • Ria Nishikawara
  • Ria Nishikawara is an editing intern with Tradewind who plans to pursue graduate studies in publishing. Having recently graduated from UBC with a BA in Political Science, her academic focus on peace and conflict studies reinforced her belief in the power of imagination and storytelling. A book nerd who wears her pink-framed glasses proudly, she loves getting other people excited about reading. When she isn't working with a book, Ria coaches reading and writing to people with learning disabilities, goes camping and hiking, and hangs out in her godfather’s photography studio.

  • Sarah Shields
  • Sarah has been an editing intern with Tradewind Books since 2008. She is a fourth year English major at Simon Fraser University and after completing her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2011, she plans to enter SFUs Masters Publishing Program. Sarah lives her passion for reading and writing at Tradewind where she takes pleasure in bringing BC authors to bookshelves.