Born in South Africa in 1969, Antonia Banyard emigrated from Zambia when she was four. She grew up mainly in Nelson before relocating to Vancouver where she became a member of the Seven Sisters Writing Group. She has a MPhil (Creative Writing) from the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Aus) and a BA (Creative Writing) from the University of Victoria (BC). In 1999, she attended the Writing Studio at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Her work has appeared in Canadian journals such as Grain, The Capilano Review, PRISM International, and The Antigonish Review as well as Australian, British and American journals.

Banyard has returned to live in Nelson, having worked in book publishing or graphic design for 20-plus years. In conjunction with co-author Paula Ayer of Vancouver and illustrator/designer Belle Wuthrich of Vancouver, she has co-received the 2018 Science Communication for Children Award from the American Institute of Physics for Water Wow!, presented at the winter meeting for the American Association of Physics Teachers in San Diego, Calif, in January of 2018, as well as a nomination for the OLA Silver Birch Non-Fiction Award for Eat Up!, and a Red Cedar nomination for Water Wow!. Their two books,Water WowandEat Up!,are both info graphics for children 9-12 years old. Ayer is the Senior Editor for Greystone Books, a translator and the author of two other books for children.

Dangerous Crossings (Annick $9.95) is her collection of ten true stories of harrowing journeys and escapes from an 18th century upper-class Peruvian woman who gets stranded with her companions on the Amazon River to a teenager who crosses war-torn Germany in search of his family. With her writers' group, the Seven Sisters, she has published two anthologies.

Her first novel Never Going Back (Thistledown 2010) is about former high school friends who are reunited, after ten years, in their hometown of Nelson, B.C. for a memorial gathering to mark the anniversary of their friend Kristy's suicide.

PLACE OF BIRTH: Marionnhill Mission, South Africa

ARRIVAL IN CANADA: 1974

ARRIVAL IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: 1974

ANCESTRAL BACKGROUND: British

EMPLOYMENT OTHER THAN WRITING: Book publishing and graphic design

BOOKS:

Lady Driven: More Writing by the Seven Sisters Writing Group (Seven Sisters Writing Group, 2000). Contributor.
Dangerous Crossings (Annick, 2007) 978-1554510863True Stories from the Edge series
Never Going Back (Thistledown 2010). $16.95 978-1-897235-69-0
Eat Up! An infographic Exploration of Food (Annick 2017) co-writer, Paula Ayer; art by Bell Wuthrich $14.95 978-1-55451-883-8
Water Wow! (Annick 2017) Water Wow! (Annick 2017) $14.95 978-1-55451-821-0 $14.95 978-1-55451-821-0

[BCBW 2017] "Kidlit"