Jocelyn Shipley of Parksville and Toronto received the 2011 Surrey International Writers' Conference Writing for Young People Award. As a mother of three children, she first co-authored and self-published two craft cook books for families, Making Your Own Traditions - Christmas and Around the Year, since out of print. Since then she has written stories for both children and adults, but increasingly she has turned her hand to writing for young teens. "I think I'm still a teenager at heart. In the teen years, everything is still possible. Yet it's so difficult these days to be a teen; it's a really, really hard time to be growing up." She now takes a disciplined approach to her work. "I don't believe in waiting for inspiration. I go and sit at my desk and work on something every day. I always have more than one project on the go, and try to work every day during the week."

PLACE OF BIRTH: London, Ontario

ARRIVAL IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: August, 2005

AWARDS: Canadian Children's Book Centre "Our Choice" selection 2003 and 2005

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Stranded (Orca 2020) $10.95 978-1-4598238-9-1

Raw Talent (Orca 2018) $9.95 978-1-4598-1834-7

Impossible (Orca 2018) $9.95 978-1-4598-1556-8

Shatterproof (Orca 2016) $9.95 78-1-4598-1361-8

How to Tend a Grave, Great Plains Teen Fiction, 2012.

Cleavage: Breakaway Fiction for Real Girls, Sumach Press, 2009

Seraphina's Circle, Sumach Press, 2005

Cross My Heart, Sumach Press, 2004

Getting a Life, Sumach Press, 2002

[BCBW 2018]